These problems came against a background of years of contentious negotiations between Motorola and Teledesic.
Cut out of Teledesic and with Iridium bankrupt, Motorola quietly folded its satellite communications division.
He plans to use his contacts to line up service providers for Teledesic in the Middle East.
His other efforts included plowing millions in a telecom network called XO and a satellite service called Teledesic.
And while rivals will crowd the skies--Hughes Electronics' Spaceway, Loral's CyberStar and Teledesic among them--Astrolink promises global coverage.
But Alwaleed figures he can help make Teledesic a far more valuable property.
In 1994 he and his pal Bill Gates unveiled plans for a satellite network, later named Teledesic, but it was far off.
"We're a niche technology -- we're not looking to take away the market for fiber, " says Teledesic president Russell Daggatt.
He hopes to use his contacts to line up communications providers in the Middle East who will tap into Teledesic's satellites there.
His three big bets--the Nextlink national voice and data network, the Nextel wireless service and the Teledesic satellite venture--are now at critical junctures.
One reason is that O3b has been able to learn from the mistakes made by previous projects, such as Globalstar, Iridium and Teledesic.
McCaw let Judja-Sato use Teledesic office space for 18 months while he formed a nonprofit called VillageReach to attack the problem of delivering vaccines.
McCaw told Motorola it wouldn't be the prime contractor on Teledesic.
With Teledesic, Alwaleed plans to be more than a passive investor.
They could soon be enjoying vast new fortunes, showered from above by cheap satellite-based digiphones from Iridium, Qualcomm, Teledesic and others -- each phone with an Internet address.
When asked about competition from Teledesic, Storey is suitably matter-of-fact.
Motorola thought Teledesic was unfocused, Teledesic thought Motorola was arrogant.
At that time Judja-Sato, a native of Cameroon, was head of business development for Africa at Teledesic, the Seattle satellite communications firm founded by Craig McCaw and Bill Gates.
When the satellite network is completed in 2003, an ISP in, say, Medicine Hat, Wyoming, that contracts with Teledesic could connect a small, externally mounted antenna to its servers.
Although Teledesic says it is still confident of success, others fear that the improvement of rival technologies, such as broadband wireless and fibre optics, will leave Teledesic with little but niche markets.
Mr Schafer's friend Bill Owens, a former vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has a large role in the Teledesic project, which will link the Internet to a new network of satellites.
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McCaw maintains that the newly merged entity, to be known as ICO-Teledesic Global, will be a major global satellite phone company, though the firm will not roll out service until at least 2003.
Teledesic is a global network that aims in late 2002 to provide Internet access, video conferencing and computer network connections through 288 low- orbiting satellites to its customers no matter where in the world they are.
Teledesic Chairman Craig McCaw had expressed interest in buying the ailing Iridium just hours before it filed for Chapter 11 back in March, but he decided instead to sink his company's money into another bankrupt satellite phone provider, ICO.
"We believe that space is the next and last frontier, " says Dilip Chowdhury, who did the summer program in 1989 and is now, at 40, a director of business development at Teledesic, the satellite communications company backed by Craig McCaw.
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