Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 14:27:07 +0100 (BST) From: Lloyd Wood X-Sender: eep1lw@petra.ee.surrey.ac.uk Reply-To: Lloyd Wood To: rants@wired.com cc: cp@panix.com Subject: Comments on 7.06: Carving up the Pie in the Sky Message-ID: Full-Name: Lloyd Wood Organization: speaking for none X-URL: http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/ X-no-archive: yes MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.06/solar_pr.html the 'Carving up the Pie in the Sky' link at bottom should have 7.06, not 7.07, in the URL. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.06/skypie.html is the correct url (not sure why the non-print versions of 'Telecom's Jet Age' link successfully to http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.06/skypie.html.html) Comments on the 'Carving up the Pie in the Sky' sidebar to that article: Pentriad isn't using circular medium earth orbits (MEO); it's using Molnya orbits. The Molnya orbit is a large elliptical orbit whose useful apogee, where the quasistationary satellites provide useful service as they move slowly around the far arc, is actually further away (at a higher altitude) than GEO. An entirely other M. Ellipso isn't promising broadband services. It's voice, with the same low (9600bps) limits on data service as the much further advanced Globalstar/Iridium/ICO (ICO is not mentioned, but then it's not American), which it competes with. Skybridge isn't funded by Hughes, but by Alcatel; it's essentially French. (You're confusing Skybridge with Spaceway, a GEO broadband system financed by Hughes. That and Lockheed's GEO Astrolink are more credible than systems like Pentriad and Rostelesat in my view...) And Skyreport.com offers _daily_ news updates. An article on near-term Internet-over-satellite development, constrasting e.g. direcpc (http://www.direcpc.com/), Europe Online's www.internetinthesky.com, Tachyon (http://www.tachyon.net/) and others would probably be of interest to Wired readers. These should eat into the market for more complex broadband systems much as cellular roaming has for satellite telephony systems. L. PGP