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

I call troll!

[tunah]

Bill Gates ... less ambitious years ... painful lessons ... nails in coffin ... I am sad to see this happen.

This posted on slashdot? I call troll!

I for one am NOT sad.

[Steve Franklin]

"I am sad to see this happen"

Considering Bill Gates had his greedy little paw in it, I am far from sad. Does anyone here really want to see worldwide broadband in the hands of this same ethically challenged crew?

Re:Simpsons

[digitalsushi]

a giant round thing on a stick

"Me fail english? That's unpossible!" -Ralph Wiggum

Re:Italians aren't stupid...

[Locutus]

what are you talking about? In deposition, or was it in court, they said they used paper and pen to run their business. hint: do you really want a company vith executives who lie in court, running a global network?

I had read that up until the early 1990's, Microsoft used UNIX to develop their software. They use UNIX for CDROM duplication to prevent virus infections too( or they did a few years ago ).

I think everybody here already knows Windows sucks. It's those poor lemmings out there, PHB's and consumers, who keep getting fooled year after year who need to know this. The horror, the horror. :)

LoB