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To: engineer who wrote (13049)	7/28/1998 1:07:00 PM
From: JMD	Respond to of 152472

engineer, BatWing has really rolled the dice with Iridium, a constellation that is bleeding edge for sure. "Tried and True" in the sat biz involves so called bent pipe (signal goes from surface to bird; bird bounces it back down to earth station, thus bent pipe). All the fancy switching takes place in the ground stations; birds are dumb reflectors. This is the path taken by Globalstar. BatWing decided to stick all the fancy gizzards in their birds, which zip signals back and forth to each other, largely by-passing earth based switching. If it works (and the odds are good that it will), Iridium can take a well deserved bow, at least for engineering laurels. They'll have bragging rights for years. The economics may be another matter however. BatWing's birds cost 3 arms and 2 legs v. G* birds. Actual number is as fiercely debated as CDMA v. GSM et. al. but figure that the I* constellation is penciled in at about $1.5 BILLION more than the G* constellation. Inquiring minds always wanted to know: what happens when an I* bird goes on the fritz? Swapping out an expensive, complicated I* bird is gonna put a real bad hurt on the constellation both financially and sysytem performance wise. Whereas zipping in a cheap dumbie is a relative walk in the ionisphere [note nimble use of word play]. To make matters worse, BatWing elected to encode its transmissions with yesterday's news: the anti-Christ GSM. Ergo, G's constellation is cheaper and ships more stuff around. Holy Economics, which system do you think is gonna make more dough? Now for the capper. As we cyberchat, yes even now, two I birds are on sick leave. They may in fact be terminal. I's advantage over G was first to market: folks were supposed to start yakking in September. But BatWing can't complete its system shakedown tests in a timely manner given the absence of the two sickies, ergo September launch is in question big time. That is the, admittedly long winded, answer to your "why isn't it working yet" question. With regard to future funding, a very real answer is that BatWing just threw in the towel on an even bigger fancier constellation that they were planning and have joined up with Teledesic (Gates/McCaw/Boeing), and there is little doubt that capital constraints played a significant role. And that's the scam what am. Surfer Mike