Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version VT1.00C 11/1/84; site vortex.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!vortex!lauren From: lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) Newsgroups: net.news Subject: Re: Stargate and Usenet Message-ID: <492@vortex.UUCP> Date: Wed, 2-Jan-85 19:52:31 EST Article-I.D.: vortex.492 Posted: Wed Jan 2 19:52:31 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 4-Jan-85 00:48:58 EST References: <312@utcs.UUCP> Organization: Vortex Technology, Los Angeles Lines: 52 Sigh. I spent 2 days out in Atlanta putting in this stuff -- I think I know what I'm talking about. Certainly the WTBS footprint extends into parts of Canada, Mexico, and out into the oceans as well. But there are definite limits to the fringe, which are pretty easy to work out based on global geometry and line of sight from a single point in orbit. And there's no way to "entend the fringe" by antenna retuning (within the geometry limits) without adversly affecting reception in the primary coverage areas. The footprint patterns for a given satellite transponder are well known and fairly precise. The satellites are designed to put as MUCH power as possible into the target areas and as LITTLE as possible into the non-targets. Some have spot beams for Hawaii and Alaska to avoid flooding the Pacific with wasted power. The domestic satellites must be considered to be only that--DOMESTIC. To the extent that Canada and Mexico can receive the signals, that's fine, but you can forget about anything useful for Europe or the Far East. I'm also not addressing the issue of the legality of Canadian points receiving satellite transmissions directly. Apparently the Canadian laws are stricter about this than the U.S. regulations. I've said this before but I'll say it again. Turner Broadcasting, which own WTBS, does NOT own the satellite uplink facilities of WTBS. Turner Broadcasting does not run any vertical interval data services of their own, and apparently has no plans or interest in doing so for the forseeable future. Given their rate structures, it can be fully expected that any future data services they might run would be *extremely* expensive. The WTBS uplink is owned and operated by a SEPARATE COMPANY. It has been this way since day one, since under FCC regulations Turner cannot own both a local TV station (WTBS ch. 17) and the national distribution mechanism for that station. Such ownership, even if made legal, would subject Turner to programming charges based on a national market, not the Atlanta market prices he pays now, so you can see why the current situation is stable. While this separate company is symbiotic with Turner, it is this separate company that has the complete control over the WTBS satellite vertical interval. They make the decisions about what data will be on there, how much will be charged, and all related decisions. It is this company, not Turner, with which we are dealing, and it is this company that has made the data space available for free for the experiment. They are also the ones who have made all the investments in equipment for supporting data services, local computers, and all the other things required to support the vertical interval services. I'll make a lot of this even more clear at the Dallas conference when I give my talk. The politics of national satellite services are somewhat complicated, but can be understood with some backround info. --Lauren--