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To: Starowl who wrote (8607)	9/9/2001 8:02:43 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 74559

>>Surfing the Internet is just not worthwhile over satellite.<< With a portable. People who use StarBand seem to like it, but that's fixed.

To: Starowl who wrote (8607)	9/10/2001 2:27:41 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 74559

Satellite communications (Iridium-type) didn't succeeded because underlying the strategy was the protection for the satellite and launcher businesses. So Motorola was much focusing in making money with the satellites than with providing services. I had my abracadabra ready in 1989 when the Iridium concept was launched. I used to contribute to a think tank Perception International of Connecticut. My take on that was satellites such as Iridium should be devoted to provide universal telephony services for far-flung places in every country that so required. The existing telephony infrastructure would them be transformed in a infrastructure to hook up computers together. The need for a platform to serve telephony in paces of difficult access was necessary. In 1984 the UK had broken the telco out of the post office and created a duopoly in telecoms BT and Mercury. Then it was said that without the cross-subsidisation of telco paying for the postal service, the proverbial old lady in the wilderness could not get her letters. In the same way, when telecoms liberalization would come, then there would be a cry for the old lady not lose her phone line. Giving the very basic telephony to be carried by Iridium or Iridium-like satellite phone services, would take out of the political agenda the need for universal telephone service. Thus the telephone infrastructure could be transformed into a giant data network. I didn't know what Internet was then, but I knew that the minicomputer that had replaced the mainframes, would be replaced by the PC. Data process centers were being de-centralized and there was a need to interconnect them. All computers run over the infrastructure built to carry telephony. Why not port telephony to some other infrastructure and use the existing one to transport data?) Didn't do that and have to sell their 5 billion investment for 25 million. 3G still can end up as the Iridium of the 21st Century. But there is still time to save it.

To: Starowl who wrote (8607)	9/10/2001 2:31:51 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 74559

In the case of the IMARSAT, it is a creature of the oil shock. When oil prices quadrupled during the 70s, an oil cargo from the Gulf States would change hands several times in the spot market. A super tanker needed a few weeks to get from the origin to the final destination. The oil tankers at sea needed communication to know whom owned the cargo at several points in the journey and to where it should be taken. IMARSAT was created to provide telex lines for the communication between oil traders and everybody involved and the ships.