The Commercial Uses of Communication Satellites

New York Times, July 26, 1961, p. 11.

Congressional Record, April 19, 1962, p. 6475.

The first two transatlantic telephone cables (TAT-1 and TAT-2) each entailed a cost of about $45 million.

To extend this system throughout the world to underdeveloped areas and to increase the capacity to TV levels could run into billions of dollars. As an alternative, a slow-scan transmission technique, in which transmission is spread over a longer time than the time consumed by the television program itself, also could be employed with cables of the lower capacity; but, as of today, even this technique has not been judged economical.

The transportation charges are calculated on the simplifying assumption that each film makes ten 1000-mile trips during the year at $10 per trip.

The contribution of long-distance transmission cost to total system cost is even less when the cost of the broadcast stations themselves is added.

The $64 million and $400 million estimates are lower and upper bounds, since incremental costs could be assigned to educational television (depending upon relative use) at any point within this range.

This statement is based upon assumptions and cost estimates in the box on p. 57.

There are, of course, other impediments to such broadcasts; for example, the cultural differences that require careful tailoring of programs to local conditions.

Wall Street Journal, June 6, 1961, p. 6.

Staff Report of the Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration, 85th Congress, 2nd session, The Next Ten Years in Space, 1959–1969, p. 32.

This understates the incremental costs because it is unlikely that television could be simultaneously, relayed to a large number of stations without serious interruption unless the number of satellites in orbit were increased beyond 120—an increase entailing an additional cost that should be included here.

Meckling W. H. , Communications Satellites: Supplemental Information on the Cost Estimates Given in Research Memorandum RM-2709-NASA, RAND Memorandum RM-2778-NASA, June 30, 1961, p. 11. The ground stations used to relay signals from the satellite to conventional television broadcasting stations are relatively expensive because of the large tracking antenna required to maintain contact with satellites moving across the sky.

This hypothetical microwave network for South America is, of course, only one of many that could be designed for the continent. In particular, extending the microwave system to the U. S. via Central America and Mexico might prove more attractive than employing the satellite link to Caracas.

Tannenbaum Frank , “Toward an Appreciation of Latin America,” in The United States and Latin America, The American Assembly, Columbia University, 1959, p. 13.

A concise description of such a synchronous system is contained in Feldman N. E. , Aspects of Synchronous Communications Satellites, The RAND Corporation, Paper P-2314, May 18, 1961.

A detailed discussion of the U. S. booster program would involve the use of classified material and is therefore not presented here.

Such a system involving no attitude control is described by Meckling , op. cit.

Feldman In , op. cit., p. 21, the weight breakdown for one particular synchronous satellite indicates that the position control subsystem weight contributes 30 to 40 per cent of the total weight of the satellite.

Meckling , op. cit., pp. 2, 10.

Furthermore, the quality of service of a synchronous system may fall below that of microwave due to the “echo effect” caused by the time delay of transmitting to and from the satellite. For a discussion of this point, see Pierce John R. “Communication Satellites” Scientific American, October, 1961.

A broadcast satellite also raises difficult problems of radio-frequency allocation, since the satellite transmission would interfere with use of the same frequency space for other purposes within the countries concerned. And, of course, with instantaneous reception the differences in languages and cultural patterns among the receiving countries would raise additional problems.

Ives G. M. , “Television Broadcasting from Satellites,” Astronautics, June 1962, p. 87.

Crain C. M. , Broadcasting from Satellites, The RAND Corporation, Paper P-2395, August 3, 1961, p. 12.

“U.S. and AT&T,” New Republic, August 7, 1961, p. 6.

Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Telecommunications Satellite, Business Planning Study (1960), Exhibit XVII.

In the interests of brevity, worldwide telephone traffic data and detailed cost comparisons between satellite, microwave, and submarine cable for telephone use are omitted. However, a good treatment of these factors appears in Meckling W. H. , “The Economic Potential of Communication Satellites,” Science, June 16, 1961.