Teledesic Comes Down to Earth

hibachi writes "Teledesic, the ambitious plan to build a constellation of low-earth orbiting satellites for global broadband services, has died on the assembly room floor. According to this press release, "the company does not believe that it is prudent, purely on speculation, to continue the substantial capital expenditures required to construct and launch the satellites consistent with the timing required to meet FCC and ITU regulatory milestones." Brainchild of Bill Gates and Craig McCaw, Teledesic held the promise of globally ubiquitous high speed Internet. It seems Teledesic's plans grew less ambitious over the years until finally the painful lessons of Iridium, and the current telecom climate, drove the last nails in its coffin. I am sad to see this happen."

Comments

Re:3 billion people without electricity

[mito]

Yada yada .. feed the starving before connecting them to the net ... yada yada

What if lack of development actually stemmed from the state of ignorance third-world ppl are in?

What if access to massive amounts of information about everything on the Net (howto harverst, plant, increase yields, irrigate, topple corrupt leaders, etc.) helped them get out from under-development?