Teledesic
(Teledesic Corporation, Kirkland, WA) A communications company that was spun off from McCaw Cellular in 1994 for the purpose of creating a high-speed, wireless, switched global network. Its vision was an IP-based system designed to support data, voice and video at the same quality level as fiber-based terrestrial systems.
An Internet in the Sky
Teledesic planned for its 288 low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites to transmit in the Ka-band and blanket the earth with the equivalent of 20,000 T1 lines. Data would be switched from one satellite to another, simulating an Internet in the sky. Using dishes less than a meter wide, the target markets were organizations and communities without high-bandwidth communications as well as maritime.
An Ambitious Project that Never Came About
Teledesic's major investors were Craig McCaw, Bill Gates and AT&T Wireless Services. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on this project, which was expected to cost $9 billion. In 2002, citing problems in the telecom industry and financial markets, Teledesic suspended its operations. In 2003, it voluntarily relinquished its 1 GHz of spectrum to the FCC.
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| Teledesic's "Internet in the Sky" |
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| The top picture shows how the 288 LEO satellites were planned to blanket the earth. The bottom one conceptualized the uplinks and downlinks in the network. (Images courtesy of Teledesic Corporation.) |