Teledesic
From Free net encyclopedia
Teledesic was a 1990s proposal to build a commercial broadband satellite constellation for Internet services. The goal of the Teledesic system is to provide millions of concurrent Internet users with an uplink of as much as 100 Mbit/s and a downlink of up to 720 Mbit/s using a small, fixed, VSAT-type antenna, completely bypassing the telephone system. The proposal was extremely ambitious, with 288 satellites (compared to 66 for Iridium) and was gradually scaled back in complexity and number of satellites as market expectations for the sale of capacity decreased. The failure of Iridium was a significant factor in halting the project, and Teledesic officially suspended its satellite construction work on October 1, 2002.
Teledesic was notable for gaining early funding from Craig McCaw and Bill Gates, and for achieving allocation of Ka band frequency spectrum for non-geostationary services.
External links
- http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/constellations/teledesic.html Lloyd's satellite constellations - Teledesic
- Teledesic home page