More than three decades after Marshall McLuhan coined the term 
'global village,' nearly half the world's population still lives more 
than two hours away from a telephone.
     Yes, a growing number of networks span the globe, but what they lack 
is ubiquitous access. Today's fiber-optic, copper and wireless networks 
define mere pockets of coverage, primarily in urban areas of developed 
countries.
     Truly ubiquitous networks are now under development. Not surprisingly, 
they have been widely criticized as impractical and unnecessary. But at 
first, so were telephones, home computers and space travel. Where some see 
opportunity, others see only obstacles.
     One path to the global village is called Teledesic. Founded in 1990 by 
software mogul Bill Gates and wireless communications tycoon Craig McCaw, 
Teledesic would upgrade the world's telecom infrastructure in one fell 
swoop. Employing a fleet of roving satellites, it promises to establish an 
'Internet in the sky.'
     Teledesic is alluring for its scale and vision, although some find its 
estimated $9 billion price tag too high. Actually, its a bargain; it would 
cost trillions of dollars to accomplish the same thing on the ground. 
Teledesic will support more than 1 million simultaneous connections at 2M 
bit/sec each - the equivalent of 128 million simultaneous voice 
conversations at 16K bit/sec each.
     Teledesic's long-term vision is to permit knowledge workers to live 
wherever they choose. Its founders apparently believe that while the 
Industrial Age built the great cities, it will be up to the Information Age 
to dismantle them. In a sense, Teledesic aspires to be the first local 
phone company with global presence.
     The use of low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites will forever change the 
way we think about satellite communications. In the old paradigm, telecom 
satellites were like mainframe computers. Perched in geosynchronous orbits 
22,000 miles above the ground, they required expensive user terminals with 
large dish antennas. Half-second, round-trip delays made voice 
conversations awkward and real-time data communications almost impossible.
     In the new paradigm, satellites are more like PCs. They are smaller, 
less expensive and may one day be mass-produced. Because they always are 
moving in relation to the ground, a fleet is required to ensure continuous 
service. But its worth it: LEO satellites are accessible to small 
businesses and even individuals.
     One of Teledesic's top priorities is to enable small, inexpensive 
subscriber terminals. Because communications are limited to nearly vertical 
signals, which pass through the least amount of atmosphere, terminals 
require less power. But the LEO satellites must be spaced close together, 
which means there must be more of them. The original design called for a 
whopping 840 satellites. In conjunction with prime contractor Boeing, 
Teledesic has reduced its satellite configuration to 288 satellites - still 
considerably more than other proposed systems.
     Over the past few months, competing systems with names like SkyBridge 
and Celestri have been unveiled. However, only Teledesic employs enough 
satellites to ensure low-cost subscriber terminals. Furthermore, Alcatel 
and Motorola, the purveyors of SkyBridge and Celestri, respectively, 
applied for their licenses  just this year; Teledesic already has its 
license. And Teledesic has two secret weapons - Craig McCaw and Bill Gates 
- to provide the vision, management expertise and international 
partnerships required to pull together a truly ubiquitous network.
     Cynics may say McCaw and Gates are just trying to expand their 
personal empires. More generous souls may believe that through Teledesic, 
they hope to leave their mark on humanity. Either interpretation is OK with 
me - as long as they succeed.
     Brodsky is president of Datacomm Research Co., a Wilmette, Ill., 
consulting firm. He can be reached via the Internet at 
ibrodsky@ix.netcom.com.