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Strategies & Market Trends : The Thread Formerly Known as No Rest For The Wicked -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jane4IceCream who wrote (53702)	8/17/1999 10:34:00 PM
From: Bill on the Hill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 90042

Teledesic - I don't think it is publicly traded. Do you know? The Company Teledesic is building a global, broadband Internet-in-the-Sky. Using a constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites, Teledesic and its international partners are creating the world's first network to provide affordable, worldwide, "fiber-like" access to telecommunications services such as computer networking, broadband Internet access, high-quality voice and other digital data needs. On Day One of service, Teledesic will provide guaranteed end-to-end quality of service to meet the broadband needs of enterprises, businesses, schools and individuals around the world. Teledesic is a private company based in Bellevue, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. Timeline 1990 Company founded 1994 Initial system design completed; Federal Communications Commission application filed 1997 FCC license granted; World Radio Conference designates necessary international spectrum for service 1998 Motorola joins effort to build the Teledesic Network 1999 Teledesic completes system agreement with Motorola, signs major launch contract with Lockheed Martin 2004 Service targeted to begin Principal Shareholders/Industrial Partners Teledesic represents the vision of telecommunications pioneer Craig McCaw, the company's chairman. Teledesic's primary investors are McCaw, Bill Gates, Motorola, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Boeing. Motorola, one of the world's premier communications equipment manufacturers, leads the international industrial team that will develop and deploy the Teledesic Network. Customers Teledesic will develop alliances with service partners in countries worldwide, enabling service providers to extend their networks, both in terms of geographic scope and in the kinds of services they can offer. Network Capacity/Access Speeds The Teledesic system is designed to support millions of simultaneous users. Multiple manufacturers will offer a family of user equipment to access the network. Most users will have two-way connections that provide up to 64 Mbps on the downlink and up to 2 Mbps on the uplink. Higher-speed terminals will offer 64 Mbps or greater of two-way capacity. This represents access speeds more than 2,000 times faster than today's standard analog modems. User Equipment The Teledesic system's low orbit eliminates the long signal delay normally experienced in satellite communications and enables the use of small, low-power terminals and antennas. The compact terminals will mount on a rooftop and connect inside to a computer network or PC. Cost Design, production and deployment of the Teledesic system are estimated to cost more than $9 billion. End-user rates will be set by service providers, but Teledesic expects rates to be comparable to those of future urban wireline services for broadband service. Regulatory Approval Teledesic has cleared major regulatory hurdles. In November 1997, the International Telecommunication Union's 1997 World Radiocommunication Conference finalized its designation of international radio spectrum for use by non-geostationary fixed satellite services, such as those Teledesic will provide. In March 1997, the Federal Communications Commission granted Teledesic its license. Frequencies Teledesic will operate in the high-frequency Ka-band of the radio spectrum (28.6 - 29.1 GHz uplink and 18.8 - 19.3 GHz downlink) # of Satellites 288 plus spares Employees More than 125 and growing Headquarters Bellevue, Washington; offices in Brussels, Madrid, Ottawa and Washington, D.C. 1