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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (6284)	1/16/2000 12:41:00 PM
From: Valueman	Respond to of 12823

I would be interested in seeing some modeling, showing projected throughput capabilities per user in each direction, plotted against gradual increases in uptake, and using some established message profiling assumptions. E.g., strictly email and casual residential surfing at one extreme, with full multimedia and soho usage at the other, with graduations in between. I would die to see such models, but not a single player will cough up their plan in detail. I would imagine there are models based on the cable modem business(the management here all came from cable land), and I am sure there is a bit of "shooting from the hip" since only the military has a working model of two way sat at the moment. The acceptable use policy would also be interesting to review. I hear the hints of DirecPC here! Always a concern with limited bandwidth. Hughes' FAP is a serious problem with DirecPC. I am sure you are aware of the myriad of problems with that system(if not, read away on the newsgroup alt.satellite.direcpc for a real taste of disgruntled customers, both current and past). DirecPC is hampered by capacity issues, and will punish heavy users with a slow data rate. Quiet unfair really. That is why we are major ViaSat shareholders. They strive to cram as much data through a satellite as possible. They started with the military who is woefully underserved in satellite capacity, and they are now attempting to go commercial with the technology(visit ViaSat's white paper library at viasat.com to see how DAMA and PCMA can juice capacity). Also, the initial dual stationary model is at odds with Teledesic's approach. It should be interesting to see how earthlings will fair with each, and which would excel beyond the other. What's the latest with Teledesic? Any real knews there to report? Anyone? Teledesic is a big unknown. The 288 sat LEO system is going to cost an order of magnitude more than they fess up to. Will it ever get done? Nobody knows. Recently, Bill Owens, the head man at Teledesic, and former second in command of the military, has talked about an interim GEO solution. I watch this development closely since Bill Owens also resides on ViaSat's board.The whole LEO vs. GEO debate for data is interesting. People talk of delay with GEOs, but I have used a GEO system and I was not aware of any difference from my current setup(it was faster actually). If one is using the pipe for videoconferencing or "twitch games," then the delay will be apparent. Otherwise, delay is not a problem. A LEO system like Teledesic proposes, or like Skybridge( a Gilder favorite www.skybridgesatellite.com) will not have this delay. There are other problems that surface, such as the need for antennae that track different sats as they progress in and out of view. Handoffs are an issue, as is Ku-band interference with GEO sats in the case of Skybridge, or Ka-band in the case of Teledesic. Gilder favors LEO sats, saying GEOs are "old paradigm." I disagree. Nothing beats the cost of coverage with a GEO sat at 22,300 miles covering whole continents, even 2 continents. It is much more costly and complex to do a 80 sat LEO system like Skybridge, and for what? No delay?