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Technology Stocks : IRID - Iridium World Communications IPO Announced! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe Brown who wrote (1310)	2/7/1999 11:49:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2693

Cisco-Motorola venture aims for Internet world without wires New York Times CHICAGO -- In what is being billed as the next giant step in the Internet revolution, the Motorola Corp., the maker of wireless communications products, and Cisco Systems Inc., which provides Internet equipment, plan to form an alliance that would build the world's largest wireless Internet system. The project is the most ambitious effort yet to build a global network that would enable businesses and consumers to have high-speed Internet access to e-mail and faxes without the burden of wires, cables or even walls. The plan, which is expected to be announced Monday at a cellular telephone conference in New Orleans, makes Motorola and Cisco Systems the latest communications and networking giants to join forces in an attempt to capitalize on the increasing popularity of the Internet and the rapid growth of wireless communications products. Over the next four or five years, Motorola and Cisco say they plan to invest more than $1 billion to create a system capable of transmitting voice, data and video over existing cellular telephone stations directly to wireless telephones, laptop computers and other devices. The system would create a new line of products for Motorola, a new generation of wireless networking gear for Cisco and perhaps even signal the convergence of several existing communications products, like pagers, cellular telephones, televisions, radios and computers. The two companies also plan to open four joint research and development centers, two in the United States and two abroad. A critical piece of the puzzle, Motorola and Cisco say, is that the wireless transmissions would be delivered using an Internet Protocol platform that is compatible with all wireless formats. Unlike analog or digital platforms, the companies say that the Internet Protocol, or IP platform, will be able to deliver and bundle voice, data and video feeds through cellular stations. TOP OF PAGE ©1999 Mercury Center.

To: Joe Brown who wrote (1310)	2/8/1999 12:26:00 AM
From: djane	Respond to of 2693

Cellular Networking Perspectives Reveals How Iridium Got Its Name [Not sure if this was posted before...] cnp-wireless.com Most people know by now that the Iridium satellite system was named because it was originally planned to have 77 satellites, which is the Atomic Number of the element Iridium. As an aside, the current configuration contains only 66 satellites, but somehow it is doubtful that Dysprosium will ever be used as a marketing name! What is less known is who came up with the name. We have confirmed that this person was Jim Williams, one-time Motorola representative to TIA subcommittee TR-45.2, also known within Motorola CIG (Cellular Infrastructure Group) as the ‘official namer'. According to Jim, “It occurred to me that my mental image of the system resembled a model of an atom with electrons orbiting a nucleus so I looked up the element with 77 electrons which turned out to be Iridium.” Jim Williams' full story follows (references to the Brooklyn Bridge are an inside joke, that may be explained later)… THE NAMING OF IRIDIUM by Jim Williams The guys who originated the Iridium concept were Bary Bertiger (now the General Manager of the Motorola Satellite Communications Group), Ray Leopold (Vice-President and Chief Technical Officer of SCG) and Ken Petersen (currently with the Teledesic project). They were with the Motorola Government Electronics Group then, and the system was originally to be for the military. The senior Motorola management at that time decided that there would be more impact (and profit) from a commercial implementation, so the team began touring through Motorola to see if some other product group would be interested in helping them out. Eventually they arrived at CIG, the Cellular Infrastructure Group (late 80's, I think) and I was one of the people involved in discussing their ideas with them. After their initial presentation in Chicago, we realized that this was much more than just another scheme to use satellites to backhaul traffic between cell sites and cellular switches. It was more like 77 EMX-2500s [Motorola Cellular Switches] orbiting the Earth, each supporting more than a thousand voice channels, all interconnected with each other, and with multiple land-based switches for interfacing to the PSTN around the world. I had always been inclined to wrestle with new system ideas – architectures, protocols, features, etc. – and I usually liked to give any new idea some kind of name rather than just “that satellite system” or “that scheme for handing off the Brooklyn Bridge”. My boss used to kid me that I was the “official namer” for CIG. He suggested that I propose a name for the system. It occurred to me that my mental image of the system resembled the model of an atom with electrons orbiting a nucleus so I looked up the element with 77 electrons which turned out to be Iridium. I went to Chandler, Arizona to get a little more involved in some of the details. We spent several days discussing the seemingly endless list of fascinating technical problems requiring solution – the constellation and how it would be established and maintained; the satellites themselves (their weight and cost); launch systems; up-links, down-links and cross-links; the “air interface” links and their power levels, fade margin and protocol; subscriber units and their size, antenna systems, cost, etc.; handing off from one satellite travelling at nearly 17,000 mph [27,000 km/h] to another, not only of active subscribers but also of fixed earth stations (but not the Brooklyn Bridge); how to acquire necessary spectrum in virtually every country on Earth; numbering plans and dialling plans; call processing for mobile-to-land, land-to-mobile and mobile-to-mobile calls; “gateway” switching systems and inter-switch connections and protocols for roaming, billing, features, etc. – just a few little details. Toward the end of the last day, Ray Leopold asked if there was anything else anyone wanted to bring up. I mentioned that I thought the system should have a name and made my proposal, explaining the rationale. Everyone liked it and the name Iridium was adopted. A few weeks later there was another meeting in Chicago. I was chatting with Ray and he asked me if I had received any compensation for coming up with the name (sort of like a patent award). I said that I hadn't and he pulled out his wallet and handed me a dollar. That's how I became the first person to make a profit out of Iridium (still true to this day, but hopefully not for much longer). The “Iridium Dollar” now hangs in a frame on my den wall. A free sample of Cellular Networking Perspectives, back issues and other items, can be ordered from our web order desk or by phoning 1-800-633-5514 (+1-403-274-4749). © Copyright December 1998.