atellite com- munications to support public telephony as well as television, particularly interna- tional television. Since then, large numbers of satellites have been launched. At this point, there are more than 250 communications-based satellites in space, as well as hundreds of other specialized satellites used for meteorological purposes, defense, remote sensing, geological exploration, and SO on, for a total of more than 700 sat- ellites orbiting the earth. And it seems that many more satellites will be launched in the future. There are still approximately 3 billion people on the planet who are not served by even basic communications services, and we can't possibly deploy enough wire- line facilities in a short enough time frame to equalize the situation worldwide. Therefore, satellites are very important in bringing infrastructure into areas of the world that have previously not enjoyed that luxury. In descriptions of satellite services, three abbreviations relate to the applica- tions that are supported: FSS-Fixed satellite services, the conventional fixed services, are offered in both the C-band and the Ku-band allocations. BSS-Broadcast satellite services include standard television and direct broadcast. These largely operate in the Ku-band, at 18GHz. Because the general application of television SO far has been one way, 18GHz shows just the downlink frequency allocation. As we begin to move toward interactive TV, we'll start to see the use of two different bands in BSS. MSS-Mobile satellite services accommodate mobility (i.e., mobile users). They make use of either Ka-band or L-band satellites. A satellite's footprint refers to the area of earth that the satellite's beams cover. Much of the progress in satellite developments has been in new generations of antennas that can provide more spot beams that can deliver higher-quality service to targeted areas rather than simply one big beam, with which users at the fringes of the footprint begin to see a degradation in service. Satellite Another thing that's 