Re: connectivity outside the US

["Justin W. Newton" <justin () priori net>]

At 04:06 AM 6/1/97 -0400, Todd Graham Lewis wrote:
> On Sun, 1 Jun 1997, Circuit wrote:
>
> > comments, rants, flames? 
>
> Do satellites really stand a chance against fibre?  Most people think not,
> and more specifically that their competitiveness shall continue to decline
> as time progresses.  Not exactly the kind of thing one wants to lay out
> large capital expenditures on...

High orbit, geosyncronous sattelites do not stand much of a chance against
land lines as the latency on the links is quite high.  Low orbit
satellites, however, can be quite effective competition assuming that they
have enough satellites to get coverage.  These types of satellites are the
ones that Gates is thinking of launching as well as several other
companies/consortiums.  When we can all have > 1MB/sec connectivity
wireless to our laptops/video portable phones, with global coverage,
satellites will rule the day.

Justin "I still like land lines" Newton
Justin W. Newton
Senior Network Architect
Priori Networks                         http://www.priori.net
ISP/C, Director at Large                        http://www.ispc.org