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

To: diddlysquatz who wrote (2599)	12/15/1998 6:06:00 PM
From: RocketMan	Respond to of 12823

Interesting, Paul. Looks like they plan to use the Canadian Star Choice DBS system, which uses the Anek satellite. They would then distribute the signal to multiple dwelling units, which gets around the problem apartment dwellers have with DBS dishes, that their apartment might face the wrong direction, they have to pass the signal through their windows, etc. Didn't know Star Choice was going to offer internet service, but I assume it would be like the DirectPC system, which only uses one transponder for data services, limiting them to around 25Mbps. I don't know how many users DirectPC supports. They advertise a 400k download rate, but with a single transponder that would only service a bit over 60 users at max rate. Of course, not everyone is downloading all the time, and if only a few percent of users are on line and downloading, they might be able to handle several throusand users. Then there is duplication, where several users might be accessing the same site, though I don't know how frequent that takes place at the same time. Bottom line is that single transponders from geo are far from the answer to the last mile, though if it is true that Hughes will dedicate an entire satellite to internet use they could make things interesting, especially if they use smart caching.