Re: Crazy idea!

Eric Ruud (ejruud@ucdavis.edu)
Wed, 18 Nov 1998 14:11:30 -0700

How do i get off this list?



>From: Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com (Dan Clemmensen)
>To: extropians@extropy.com
>Subject: Re: Crazy idea!
>Date: Thu, Nov 12, 1998, 7:54 PM
>

>Eugene Leitl wrote:
>>
>> How do the cost of overland/undersea fibre relate to a cloud of
>> line-of-sight laser LEO relays? On long distances, the LEO latency
>> should be even lower, slower speed of light in glass vs. vacuum
>> considered. Given the fight over the dirty last mile, cellular, or
>> even LEO wireless might be ISP's smartest choice, if launch costs to
>> LEO are indeed to drop as predicted. Anybody aware of work on
>> affordable antenna technology capable of direct ground-to-LEO?
>> (WSI phased-array, anyone?)
>>
>The undersea cable is almost certainly cheaper for long-haul, and
>has a huge advantage in ease of upgrade. As to breaking the local
>telco monopoly on the "last mile" ("bypass technology"), radio works
>pretty well, in many forms: look at cellular and satellite phones.
>Interstingly, the "G3" cellular proposals (i.e., third-generation
>cellular protocols) are currently being worked out. they are supposed
>to permit data rates to 2Mbps (burst), which is a huge leap. Another
>neat idea is to use long-duration aircraft circling over big cities at
>a very high altitude to deliver MAN services via radio trasponders.
>