winner will undoubtedly be the consumer. Greater variety, more innovative services, and cheaper prices will spur the development of Global Information Infrastructure, and bring cost-effective, user-friendly communications tools and services to more people throughout the world. Wireless technologies are the enabler for much of this growth, particularly in rural markets, and terrestrial implementations, such as wireless local loop, and satellite based services will support this market. Status and Systems Presently in Concept, Development or Deployment [Evans98] There are indications that the geostationary (GSO) satellite industry which supports traditional services and markets has reached the peak of the third production cycle. The GSO production cycles match the spacecraft technology generation; i.e., when operators replace the satellites which they launched in the previous cycle. The first cycle was from 1972 - 1979 in which thirty-seven satellites were launched, the second from 1980 - 1989 with ninety-six launches, and the third starting in 1990 and projected to last until approximately 2002 with slightly over three hundred satellites launched. The time interval between the peak of each phase matches approximately the nominal satellite lifetime of five years, nine years, and thirteen years respectively. The primary power for the largest of the satellites in each phase has increased from 1,000 watts in 1977, to 1,500 watts in 1985, and as high as 15,000 watts in 1998; the weight of these satellites were 1,700 kg, 2,500 kg, and 4,700 kg respectively. Geostationary satellite systems initially utilized spectrum in C-band (4 - 8 GHz), Ku-band (10.9 - 17 GHz) transponders were deployed in the 1980s, and initial Ka-band (18 - 31 GHz) systems have been deployed in the 1990s. The present distribution of geostationary transponders is approximately 46% C-band, 51% Ku-band, and 3% in Ka-band. Most systems presently in concept development, design and construction, or deployment address either the Global Mobile Personal Commu