In 1991, after Iridium and Global Star filed for global licenses, a team from within International Microspace, Inc. organized to file for our own L/S-band license. The team was led by David Wine and Bruce Kraselsky with the help of me and Brad Schwartz. David would serve as Chairman and Bruce as the CEO. The company eventually was one of four companies to get licenses from the FCC in the L/S bands for satellite based telephony. We held that honor along with Iridium and GlobalStar. Constellation Communications was eventually sold to E-Systems and then to Orbital Sciences. The system was never built for lack of sufficient funding or market demand.

Background on Satellite Systems:
On October 4th 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first low-Earth orbit communication satellite constellation. It was a constellation of one satellite which broadcast a very simple message, "beep, beep, beep". Thirty-two years later, Motorola Corporation shocked the world by announcing plans for a $6 billion dollar, 77 satellite, low-Earth orbit constellation named "Iridium" designed to provide global wireless telephone services. The constellation was named after the element on the periodic table possessing 77 electrons. A few years after its announcement, Motorola changed the constellation design to a 66 satellites configuration. I immediately ran to the period table, probably like many others, to find out that 'Dysprosium' was element #66. The marketing team at Motorola never changed the constellation name, I guess they didn't like the sound of Dysprosium… or its Greek roots. I don't blame them, it comes from the Greek meaning "hard to get at", not what you want as a description for a communications system! The name turned out to be somewhat prophetic. In mid 1999 the Iridium Corporation declared bankruptcy. The delay in their deployment, coupled with very high prices service and handsets was compounded by the nimble and unstoppable build out of the terrestrial mobile phone networks. The combination spelled financial disaster.

When Iridium was first announced, the concept of a $6 billion dollar, 66 satellite system was unthinkable. That fact that it was in low-Earth orbit, instead of the traditional 22,300 mile geostationary or Clarke orbit was equally incredible. For over two decades, communication satellites had implemented what a young British communications engineer, Arthur C. Clarke, had first written about 50 years ago (1947) in Wireless World magazine. Namely, that a satellite repeater placed above the equator at an exact orbit of 22,300 miles would take precisely 24 hours to orbit and would therefore serve as a geographically stationary repeater in the sky.

But why Iridium? Why would anyone venture into such an exotic and incredibly expensive wireless phone system? After all, didn't the engineers realize that this system (composed of 6 polar orbiting planes of 11 satellites per plane) would equally cover the north pole, south pole and all the oceans? Were they planning to sell communications services to the fish and polar bears? A quick look at the population distribution of the land masses will indicate that the constellation of satellites will only spend about 10 to 15% of its time over populated regions of Earth. The fact of the matter is that besides Motorola, Qualcomm/Loral (in partnership with a number of major firms including AirTouch, France Telecom, and Nokia) filled a similar system called GlobalStar, and two start-up ventures, EllipSat and Constellations Communications Inc. (of which I am a founder) also filed to the Federal Communications Commission for licenses to build and operation such large LEO systems.

LEO systems make sense compared to terrestrial and Geostationary systems as part of the GAIA Nervous System... they offer Global, ubiquitous coverage, with little time-delay. They fill part of the demand and a unique niche of the Digital Matrix.

Just when the communications world getting used to the idea of 66 satellites whizzing around overhead, an incredible 840-satellite system called Teledesic was announced. The brainchild of venture capitalist and visionary Edward Tuck, Teledesic, has become the 'ultimate' in LEO constellations. Backed initially by Bill Gates (no introduction needed) and Craig McCaw (multibillionaire, communications magnate), Teledesic has been designed to provide a global broadband backbone to rival any and all telephone companies. At a projected price tag of $9 to $15 Billion, Teledesic has made Motorola's 66 satellite system, Iridium, look very, very reasonable. Two years after it was announced, the Teledesic system did change its design to a 288 satellite system when Boeing Corporation came on as a partner. Two years later, Boeing was replaced by Motorola as the system contractor and the design was again up for grabs. In what form and when the Teledesic system gets launched remains a big question. On the downside, the rapid terrestrial deployment of competitive broadband systems worldwide makes a LEO system less financially viable with each day that passes. On the positive side, satellites will continue to become cheaper and cheaper to manufacture thanks too Moore's Law. And while launch costs are not dropping rapidly, there is promise for significant cost reductions in the next decade.

Peter H. Diamandis
Co-Founder and Past-Director