GLOSAS Board, Rescue Iridium report & GSTF Summit plan

<<June 24, 2000>>

Ben I. Haraguchi, J.D. <haralaw@cs.com>

Peter T. Knight, Ph.D. <ptknight@attglobal.net>

P. Tapio Varis, Ph.D, Professor <tapio.varis@uta.fi>

Dr. Marco Antonio R. Dias <mardias@club-internet.fr>

Anton Keller <swissbit@solami.com>

Uli Knirsch <Uli.Knirsch@Intelsat.int>

Mr. Jim Miller <jimmsl@aol.com>

Steve Weisler <sweisler@Hampshire.edu>

Gary Garriott <garyg@vita.org>

Bruce P. Chadwick <bchadwick@winrock.org>

John L. Mack, CEO <jlmack@erols.com>

Alice M. Dear <Amdear@aol.com>

Reuben Abraham <ra319@columbia.edu>

Dr. Joseph N. Pelton <ecjpelton@aol.com>

Dr. Janice Brodman <JaniceB@edc.org>

D.K. Sachdev <dsachdev@worldspace.com>

Lauri Fitz-Pegado <ljfitzp@aol.com>

Tyrone Brown <tb@wrf.com>

Marlee R. Norton <mnorton@ntca.org>

Maria A. Kendro <mkendro@ntca.org>

Bernardin Arnason <barnason@ntca.org>

Michael Tetelman <mtetelman@ntca.org>

Chitra Sharathchandra <chitra@ntca.org>

Roger Lee Boston <rboston@tenet.edu>

Mr. Uri Bar-Zemer <Uri@ids.net>

Richard Line <newseditor@videoconferencing.co.uk>

Jonathan Mark <jmark@castleharlan.com>

Charles Storer <cstorer@marstonpr.com>

Kimberly K. Obbink <kobbink@montana.edu>

Robert J. Rodrigues, M.D. <rrodrigues@paho.org>

Ben Hindley <ab367@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca>

Mr. Charles and Judy Fox <worldcitizentv@worldnet.att.net>

Dear Electronic Colleagues:
===========================

PART I: NEW BOARD MEMBERS OF GLOSAS/USA
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

(1) I am extremely delighted to inform you about new members of the board of our
GLOSAS/USA. They are;

(a) Ben I. Haraguchi, J.D., as Secretary,

(b) Peter T. Knight, Ph.D., to be the Board Member in charge of Global
Service Trust Fund (GSTF) project.

Incidentally other members are;

(d) Louis Padulo, Ph.D., Vice Chairman,

(e) P. Tapio Varis, Ph.D, Board Member and Chairman of GLOSAS/Finland,

(f) David A. Johnson, Ph.D., Board Member,

(g) Joseph N. Pelton, Ph.D., Board Member,

(h) Hisae Utsumi, Treasurer.

Their addresses and bio's are available at <http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/GLOSAS_USA_Directors/Addresses/GLOSAS_Directors.html>.

Dear Peter:
===========

I thank you very much for your letting me stay at your home in the night of 6/19th.

(2) The major project of our GLOSAS/USA is to create a Global University
System -- see <http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Global_University/Global%20University%20System/GUS_for_Manaus_workshop.html>.

Its officers are so far;

(a) P. Tapio Varis, Ph.D.
Acting President

(b) Marco Antonio R. Dias, Ph.D.
Vice President for Administration

Its trustee members are so far as follows;

(a) Dr. Pekka Tarjanne
Former Secretary General
International Telecommunications Union (ITU)

(b) Dr. Federico Mayor (to be invited)
Former Secretary General
UNESCO

PART II: RESCUE IRIDIUM" WORKSHOP ON 6/20TH
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

(3) ATTACHMENT I is the list of attendees at the Rescue Iridium" workshop
held at the National Telephone Cooperative Association (NTCA) in
Arlington, VA on 6/20th.

Dear Attendees:
===============

(4) Many, many thanks for your attendance.

Dear Marlee:
============

We greatly appreciated your generous hospitality and excellent conference room.

Dear Janice, Steve, Uri, Reuben, Jim, and Anton:
================================================

Many thanks for your attendance coming all the way from MA, RI, NYC, Seattle, and Geneva/Switzerland.

Dear Richard Line:
==================

(5) Many thanks for your excellent summary of the current status of Iridium (ATTACHMENT II).

Dear Electronic Colleagues:
===========================

(6) Pls also see ATTACHMENT III and IV.

(7) In addition to the activities of Castle Harlan and Venture Partners Inc.
for acquiring the failed Iridium, there seemed a few more groups for the
same; British Telecom, WorldTel Satellite Services, and Swiss Investors
Protection Association (SIPA/ASDI).

During our workshop, Tyrone Brown of WorldTel Satellite Services and
Anton Keller of Swiss Investors Protection Association (SIPA/ASDI)
described their attempts.

(8) As mentioned in the Project to Create a Global Service Trust Fund
(GSTF) for Tele-education and Tele-health" <http://www.friends
-partners.org/GLOSAS/Tampere_Conference/GSTF/Special_Version_6-21
-00.html>, there will be two separate contribution "sources" or "funds"
in our GSTF, an in-kind bandwidth transmission source and a financial
assistance source.

Our Rescue Iridium" project is to utilize any excess capacity of
Iridium for our Internet access, as inexpensively uplinking to it (as
Jim Miller proposed -- ATTACHMENT IV) and then utilizing Worldspace
satellite for broadband downlinking (as John Mack proposed -- ATTACHMENT V).

(9) Our discussion focused on how we can utilize their excess capacity for
the use of our Internet access.

For our approach of using Iridium,

(a) Jim Miller elaborated his scheme -- ATTACHMENT IV,

(b) John Mack elaborated his scheme -- ATTACHMENT V, for which D.K.
Sachdev of Worldspace Corporation further commented.

If this scheme is technically feasible, Roger Boston will seek necessary
fund for experimental units.

However, because of demise of the Iridium, its gateway earth
stations were left in operation only in the US and Italy (to cover Europe).

Subsequently, the application of the experimental units will be
for the Native American community project of Kim Obbink, if she
further chooses it for her Montana territory test bed.

Dear Kim:
=========

I would suggest that you invite Jim Miller and Roger Boston to
your workshop for your project which is to be held at your BTC in
a few weeks. You may also request someone from Motorola to attend it.

Dear Jim and Roger:
===================

Pls continue your discussion to come up the experimental units for
uplinking to the Iridium at 2,400 bps.

Dear John and D.K.:
===================

Pls also continue your discussion how to receive web materials
(including 3D images) at broadband Internet speed via WorldSpace
satellite -- though it is a broadcasting type.

Dear John:
==========

Pls upload your excellent PowerPoint slides into a web and let me know its URL.

Dear Jim, John and Roger:
=========================

Pls continue your dialogue on this technology so that some of its write
-up may be included in Peter Knight's seed money application and Joe
Pelton's summit mtg material -- see below.

(10) As a supplement, Gary Garriott also described his experiences on his use
of Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellite for store-and-forward email use
from around the world.

(11) Roger Boston also presented his distance learning courses from Houston
via audio conferencing while we accessed his web site, as an example for
underserved learners in remote/rural areas in developing countries.

Dear Roger:
===========

I am so sorry we could not use your loaned 8x8 videoconferencing
unit via ordinary analog telephone line from our conference room.

Dear Marlee:
============

The telephone line went through a PBX switching board in your
company. Subsequently, a long distance call required additional
numbers for ID. This forfeited the use of the 8x8 unit. For the
future case, I would suggest that you install a direct telephone
line which will go to a switching board of BellAtlantic.

PART III: SUMMIT MEETING FOR THE CREATION OF GSTF IN WASHINGTON DC IN DECEMBER
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(12) Peter Knight also presented the GSTF project with many PowerPoint slides.

Dear Peter:
==========

Pls upload your excellent PowerPoint slides into a web and let me
know its URL, though they are mostly summary of your previous
descriptions in the aforementioned web site.

Peter then elaborated it to include the next step of raising seed money
for the creation of the GSTF which is to be worked out with our
GLOSAS/USA and be submitted from Joe Pelton's CITI to various funding
sources in the near future. This process will include the workshops in
Europe and in Washington, D.C. to come up the conditionalities of tele
-education/tele-learning and tele-healthcare/tele-medicine with key
personnels of major international organizations, e.g., UNESCO, WHO, ITU,
World Bank, etc.

(13) In addition of supplementary elaboration to Peter's talk by Joe Pelton,
Joe proposed to convene a summit mtg in early week of this coming
December in Washington, D.C. -- see ANNEX I below.

Dear Joe:
=========

Many thanks for your excellent summary of our mtg. Followings are my comments.

(a) Pls revised your ANNEX I/Attachment No. 1 Attendance List for 20
June 2000 Conference" with my ATTACHMENT I Attendance List for
Rescue Iridium" Workshop on 6/20/00."

Your revised version (which I received on 6/23rd) still has a few errors.

(b) In ANNEX I/Attachment No. 2, Federico Mayor is now former
Secretary General of UNESCO. He is now in Madrid, Spain.

The first name of Mr. Utsumi of ITU is Yoshio.

You may also include Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Secretary General of UNESCO.

I would strongly suggest that you also include following Japanese;

1. Dr. Hiroshi Inose
Director General
National Center for Science Information System (NACSIS)

He is a laureate of the Medal of Culture ( Bunka
Kunsho" in Japanese) -- the highest honor in Japan.

When I brought my idea of GSTF to him in April of
1998, he immediately agreed with it as saying that the
development of broadband Internet in global scale is
now on political matter rather than technical.

2. Taro Nakayama, M.D., Ph.D.
Member, House of Representatives
Chairman, Research Commission on Foreign Affairs, LDP
Former Minister for Foreign Affairs

He indicated his strong support to the GSTF when I
visited him in April of 1998.

You may also invite following persons;

a. Mr. Vartan Gregorian
President
Carnegie Corporation of New York

b. President of Ford Foundation

c. Mr. George Soros
President
The Soros Foundations

d. Director of British Council

a. I agree with the creation of a GSTF web site by Scott Madry.

b. I would suggest that this part is to be taken care of by
Peter Knight along his write-up of raising seed money for
the creation of the GSTF. This is in reference to the
conclusions made at our first mtg on GSTF at PAHO on
12/20/00 and the one at the NTCA on 6/20/00.

Dear Peter:
===========

(14) In your previous synopsis of the GSTF, you had following phrase;

"The fund would support tele-education and tele-health programming
only through the provision of broad bandwidth, without making any
judgments about the content to be purveyed by specific projects.
This content could be in any language and from any source, subject
only to the telecommunications, education, and healthcare policy
conditionality spelled out below."

As you see in ANNEX I/Attachment No. 4 Actions to Be Taken to Support
the GSTF Initiative," Joe is adding another purpose of the GSTF for
аossibly emergency warning and rescue operations." Pls accommodate
this in your write-up.

(15) In this ANNEX I/Attachment No. 4, the options stated for GSTF Supporting
Document Number 1 are very good as the examples of using the currently
available" telecom media.

However, the major objective of the GSTF is to provide two-way (or
symmetric) broadband Internet anywhere around the world at the earliest
possible time. Its technology is now avaiLable. It is only a matter of
necessary funds, thus our quest of the GSTF, and our effort of how to
get it and how to configure how to use it effectively.

Dear Gary and others listed in this section:
============================================

Pls elaborate these options so that they would become a good
guideline for our colleagues in developing countries.

Pls also elaborate the analysis items listed in this section so
that it will also become a good guideline for the technical and
economic feasibility study which is to be made by the regional
groups of our Global University System at their planned large
workshops. They will tailor them to meet with their specific
local needs and conditions.

Dear Peter:
===========

You may request Robert J. Rodrigues of PAHO to join in this team
since he has already produced a comprehensive write-up on the
establishment of a tele-healthcare system in Latin America which
includes a very good outline for the feasibility study.

(16) For GSTF Supporting Document Number 2, Joe suggests to make market
surveys in the major regions around the world.

This is necessary but difficult (no competed people in many developing
countries or not well known about what broadband Internet can do, etc.),
and takes a lot of time. For this purpose, we are organizing a series
of workshops in those regions with motivated enthusiasts. Therefore, I
would greatly appreciate it if this team can come up a guideline for the
market survey.

(17) Along the above, I would suggest that you include a List of Bandwidth
Source, which your GSTF synopsis mentions and which may be undertaken by
Mr. Uri Bar-Zemer of Unisat. This is because such an idea was firstly
brought to me in the fall of 1993.

(18) However, the major portion of your write-up for raising a seed money for
the creation of the GSTF is the outlining of the requirements of
recipients of the GSTF, telecommunications policy conditionality,
education policy conditionality, healthcare policy conditionality, and
operational aspects of the Fund. These are to be made by your working
groups as convening a couple of workshops in Europe and Washington, D.C.
with delegates from ITU, UNESCO, WHO, and the World Bank, etc.

You may include following person;

Salah H. Mandil, Ph.D.
Director-Advisor
Health Informatics & Telematics
World Health Organization
20, Avenue Appia
CH-1211 Geneva 27
SWITZERLAND
+41-22-791-2426 (direct)
+41-22-791-2111
Fax: +41-22-791-4702
ISDN +41.22 791 1132 and 1133
mandils@who.int
mandils@who.ch

He greatly helped me during my conception of the GSTF in
1996 to 1997. He also kindly introduced me to Dr. Nakayama
mentioned above.

Dear Ben Hindley:
=================

(19) Many thanks for your msg (ATTACHMENT VII).

Dear Uli Knirsch:
=================

(20) Many thanks for your msg (ATTACHMENT VIII).

Dear Mr. Fox:
=============

(21) Many thanks for your msg (ATTACHMENT IX).

Best, Tak
****************************************
ATTACHMENT I

Attendance List for Rescue Iridium" Workshop on 6/20/00

Reuben Abraham
Columbia Institute of Tele-Information (CITI)
New York, NY 10027
ra319@columbia.edu

Bernardin Arnason
National Telephone Cooperative Association (NTCA)
Arlington, VA. 22203
barnason@ntca.org

Mr. Uri Bar-Zemer
Unisat
Providence RI 02906
Uri@ids.net

Roger Lee Boston
Houston Community College System
Houston, Texas 77006
rboston@tenet.edu
http://www.teched.org/

Dr. Janice Brodman
Education Development Center, Inc.
Newton, MA 02158-1060
JaniceB@edc.org

Tyrone Brown
WorldTel Satellite Services
Washington, D.C. 20006
tb@wrf.com

Bruce P. Chadwick
Winrock International
bchadwick@winrock.org
www.winrock.org

Alice M. Dear
Alice M. Dear & Associates
Amdear@aol.com

Lauri Fitz-Pegado
Silver Spring, MD 20906
ljfitzp@aol.com

Gary Garriott
Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA)
Arlington, VA 22209-8438
garyg@vita.org
www.vita.org

Anton Keller
Swiss Investors Protection Association (SIPA/ASDI)
Geneva, Switzerland
swissbit@solami.com
www.solami.com/consir.htm

Maria A. Kendro
National Telephone Cooperative Association (NTCA)
Arlington, VA. 22203
mkendro@ntca.org

Peter T. Knight, Ph.D.
Knight, Moore - Telematics for Education and Development
Washington, DC 20006, USA
ptknight@attglobal.net
http://www.knight-moore.com

Uli Knirsch
INTELSAT
Washington, D.C. 20008-3098
Uli.Knirsch@Intelsat.int

John L. Mack, CEO
John L. Mack & Associates
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-0567
jlmack@erols.com

Mr. Jim Miller
SYNECTICS, Ltd.
jimmsl@aol.com
http://synecticsltd.com

Marlee R. Norton
National Telephone Cooperative Association (NTCA)
Arlington, VA. 22203
mnorton@ntca.org
www.ntca.org

Dr. Joseph N. Pelton
George Washington University
Washington, D.C. 20052
Acting Executive Director of CITI
Arthur C. Clark Institute for Telecommunication and Information (CITI)
Arlington, VA 22207
ecjpelton@aol.com
http://www.informatics.org/clarke/index.html

D.K. Sachdev
Worldspace Corporation
Washington, D.C. 20037 USA
dsachdev@worldspace.com
www.worldspace.org
www.worldspace.com

Chitra Sharathchandra
National Telephone Cooperative Association (NTCA)
Arlington, VA. 22203
chitra@ntca.org

Michael Tetelman
National Telephone Cooperative Association (NTCA)
Arlington, VA. 22203
mtetelman@ntca.org

Takeshi Utsumi
GLOSAS/USA and Global University System
Flushing, NY 11355-3998
utsumi@columbia.edu
http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/

Steve Weisler
Hampshire College
Amherst, MA 01002
sweisler@Hampshire.edu
****************************************
ATTACHMENT II

Videoconferencing Insight
15 June 2000
Issue No. 2000/06

The monthly newsletter for managers and users of videoconferencing

Published in the UK by
IMP Publications
ATM House, 28 Roman Road,
Hove, East Sussex, BN3 4LA, UK.
Fax: 44 (0) 1273 381310
Web Site: http://www.vcinsight.com

Satellite Digital Radio
------------------------

Digital radio satellite Information Service will assist in fight against AIDS
& other diseases in Africa thanks to WorldSpace Foundation

Africa and Washington, DC. 17 May 2000

WorldSpace Foundation and SATELLIFE have announced the launch of a new
health service that will provide a steady stream of material to assist medical
professionals in Africa in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases
that are ravaging the continent.

WorldSpace digital radio receivers will be placed in hospitals, medical
schools, medical libraries, health clinics, health ministries and research settings.

The digital radio Africa Public Health Channel
----------------------------------------------
This unique new service, called the Public Health Channel, will overcome
the barriers of poverty, geography, and unreliable communications
infrastructures to help stop the decimation and maiming of Africa's population
>from such diseases as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.

Service launch in four countries
--------------------------------
The Public Health Channel will be launched in four countries: Zimbabwe,
Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. After an initial testing period, the project will
expand to other African countries as funding becomes available.

"We are limited only by our resources," said SATELLIFE executive
director, Holly Ladd. "We envision a time in the near future when the Public
Health Channel is available to every doctor and nurse throughout Africa, no
matter how remote their location."

Receivers provide crystal clear digital audio
---------------------------------------------
WorldSpace receivers provide crystal clear digital audio channels, and
can also serve as a modem, downloading text-based material and dynamic images
>from the AfriStari satellite directly to computers. The WorldSpace system
transcends the difficulties of unreliable telephone systems at a fraction of
the cost of most Internet-based projects.

Gracia Hillman, WorldSpace Foundation president and CEO said "WorldSpace
Foundation is very pleased to join forces with SATELLIFE on this important
undertaking. The ability to widely disseminate information about the treatment
and prevention of HIV/AIDS and other diseases is the very reason the
WorldSpace system was created."

WorldSpace Foundation is a charity
----------------------------------
WorldSpace Foundation is a nonprofit organization created in 1997.
Headquartered in Washington, DC, its work encompasses Africa, Asia-Pacific,
Latin America and the Caribbean. WorldSpace Foundation has 5% of the channel
capacity on the three WorldSpace Corporation satellites for non- commercial
social development and distance learning programming.

The vision of the Founder
-------------------------
Noah Samara is currently the chairman and CEO of WorldSpace Corporation
and member of the Board of Directors of WorldSpace Foundation. After seeing
the effect of information scarcity on the AIDS epidemic in Africa, WorldSpace
founder, Noah Samara, became committed to creating a new form of media for the
sake of sharing life-saving knowledge with underserved populations.

"WorldSpace Foundation embodies the commitment of WorldSpace networks to
social development and humanitarianism. We work with NGOs and other
humanitarian groups to bring important, life-saving information to people who
are disadvantaged by poverty, rural location and the digital divide," said a
Foundation spokesperson.

"The Public Health Channel will employ the technology of the WorldSpace
system to exponentially increase the amount of information health
practitioners throughout Africa can access - information that most health
practitioners in the United States and Europe take for granted."

The role of SATELLIFE
---------------------
SATELLIFE produces two e-mail publications, HealthNet News and HealthNet
News-AIDS and organises discussion groups for the developing world. SATELLIFE
is an international not-for-profit humanitarian organization whose mission is
to improve health by enhancing connectivity among professionals in the field
via electronic communications and exchanges of information in the areas of
public health, medicine, and the environment.

"The goal of SATELLIFE's information services is to connect the health
practitioner in the developing world with a range of high-quality information
resources in a cost-effective manner, by making use of the most affordable,
efficient and appropriate technology," stated SATELLIFE executive director,
Holly Ladd.
****************************************
Saving Iridium - 1
------------------

Iridium is a project which put 66 low-earth satellites into orbit as a basis
for a global, "anytime, anywhere" mobile telephone service

Iridium LLC became the world's first operational global satellite phone
and paging company on November 1, 1998. The network of 66 low-earth orbiting
satellites, combined with terrestrial cellular systems, enables customers to
communicate virtually anywhere in the world using one phone and pager, one
phone number, and receiving one monthly bill.

Customers access participating local cellular networks when available,
and the Iridium satellite network when outside terrestrial cellular coverage.

Iridium failed because it did not attract enough subscribers. The
feasibility of the Iridium project was made in 1991 when the mobile phone was
not yet widespread. The market estimate then was that Iridium could find
750,000 customers quite early on in its life.

As of March 31, 1999 there were approximately 10,294 customers on the
Iridium system, including 7,188 satellite-homed voice customers, 1,031
cellular-homed voice customers and 2,075 satellite paging customers.

Filing for bankruptcy
---------------------
Iridium World Communications, Ltd. is the public investment vehicle of
Iridium LLC. Iridium LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on August
13, 1999. The company is pursuing a comprehensive financial restructuring
through a voluntary Chapter 11 filing in the United States Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

The major stakeholders in this restructuring - banks, bondholders and
Iridium's strategic partners - have voiced support for this course of action.
Iridium believes they will continue to cooperate during this process. The aim
has been to sell the satellite system as a going concern.

What Iridium offers a prospective subscriber
--------------------------------------------
Iridium offers a powerful new capability to those whose work carries
them beyond the reach of conventional telephone systems: instant, mobile,
global communication. When ground-based communication systems are unavailable
or unreliable, Iridium can make and receive calls and messages. Satellite
calls placed between Iridium phones avoid terrestrial phone networks entirely,
giving you total independence from ground infrastructure.

There are obvious splendid uses for the Iridium phone. Any one on an
expedition to the North Pole would use them; an ocean going racing yacht would
use Iridium too. But only very few of the potential users who could pay
appreciated the advantages:

* Low-cost communication system that offers complete independence from
ground-based networks (for calls placed between Iridium satellite phones)

* True worldwide coverage including oceans and polar-regions

* Maximum portability and quick, easy push-button telephone dialing

* Global cross-protocol cellular roaming

* Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards provide individual user billing

* Global messaging via a belt-worn pager

* A broad variety of equipment tailored to individual, vehicular,
maritime, aeronautical, fixed, and multi-channel configurations

* Accessories include docking stations, mobile and extension antennas,
and solar-powered chargers,

As a result Iridium never got even close to the number of subscribers
(say, 0.5 to 1.5 million) that the company needed to become viable. Instead
>from launch on 1 November 1998 to 31 March 1999 Iridium signed up little more
than 10,000 subscribers.

========================================
A WorldSpace/Iridium partnership on a charitable basis has been discussed

Just prior to Iridium's demise, John Mack (then of WorldSpace (see previous
page) had initiated talks between Iridium and WorldSpace (his former
employer), to combine their systems to provide virtually global Internet.

The Iridium system would provide the thin uplink and the WorldSpace (WS)
system the relatively fast downlink. Utilizing the WorldSpace receiver (cost
about $300) attached to a computer would provide the ability to do
telemedicine, distance education, etc., as well as provide commercial
possibilities for entities to have video conferencing (15 frames/sec)
virtually anywhere.

The humanitarian aspects could be approached through the WS Foundation (web
site www.worldspace.org) with income from the commercial side
(www.worldspace.com) offsetting some (or all) of the operational costs.
****************************************
Saving Iridium - 2
------------------

Iridium LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August 1999; the
satellites should be sold for humanitarian use for all mankind

Competitors
-----------
The main satellite phone company competitor so far is GoldStar LP a
California-based company that charges over $1000 for its handset and $150 per
month. Its coverage is not fully global yet. Iridium had negotiated a large
number of gateways to link into the world's terrestrial and mobile networks.

The biggest competitor for Iridium was not GoldStar LP or the
terrestrial networks but a development not foreseen in 1990 - the speed with
which mobile phone networks have spread out to cover most areas in almost all
countries of the world.

A purchase of a Iridium fizzled out in March
--------------------------------------------
The aim has been to sell the satellite system as a going concern. There
have been several interested parties but as yet no sale.

It is reported that the courts want a performance bond to be posted to
cover the cost and the liability for de-orbiting the Iridium satellites should
any takeover fail. It is possible this could be covered through an insurance policy.

At first it was hoped that Craig McCaw's Eagle River Investments LLC
would submit a purchase proposal for Iridium's assets. On 3 March 2000, it was
announced that this sale would not go through.

The recent offers to buy are reportedly very low
------------------------------------------------
Iridium has received expression of interest from other potential buyers.
In Communications Week International of 5 june 2000, it is reported that IR
Acquisitions Group (IRAG) has offered $61 million with the intention of
turning it into a low cost, global mobile phone company. IRAG estimates the
amount needed to support the rescue of Iridium as $250 million including
losses for the first year.

IRAG says it would give the handsets away but charge $150 per month for
a subscription which included 1500 minutes of cellular phone time and 200
minutes of satellite time per month.

The same CW1 report says that Venture Partners, which has contractors in
its team approved by the U.S. government to operate satellites, has promised
to match any offer made in a bid to win. It also states that the Polaris group
waits in the wings backed by Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette (DLJ) brokers and
using the former Iridium CEO as consultant.

Most observers recognise that it will make more sense for mankind as a
whole if the Iridium system can be kept up and running, replacing satellites
as and when needed. But this too is an expensive exercise as the system has
operational expenses and satellites have to replaced after a number of years.

The best use for Iridium is humanitarian uses
---------------------------------------------
Some observers feel the best area for using Iridium is humanitarian
causes. Relief organizations in the Balkans received free Iridium telephones
and airtime as they addressed the Kosovo refugee crisis. There is a case for
broadening this type of use to all humanitarian causes.

The strongest advocate of this good solution is Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D.,
P.E., Chairman, GLOSAS/ USA, Founder of CAADE (Consortium for Affordable and
Accessible Distance Education) and President Emeritus and V.P. for Technology
and Coordination of Global University System. His Email address is
utsumi@columbia.edu.

Takeshi Utsumi has conceived a workshop on the "Save Iridium" project 20
June 2000, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm at the: National Telephone Cooperative
Association 4121 Wilson Boulevard, 10th Floor Arlington, VA. 22203 USA Tel:
703-351-2007 Fax: 703-351-2027 (near Ballston Metro Station).
========================================

Agenda of the "Save Iridium" meeting

1. Brief description on Global University System project by Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D.

2. Brief description on Global Service Trust Fund (GSTF) project by Peter T. Knight, Ph.D.

3. Possible use of Iridium for narrow-band Internet uplinking by Jim Miller, Synectics Ltd.

4. Possible use of WorldSpace satellite for broadband downlinking by John Mack of John L. Mack & Associates.

5. Brainstorming on technicalities for the Internet use of Iridium

6. Brainstorming on legalities

7. Brainstorming on fund raising

8. Brainstorming on next step.
****************************************
ATTACHMENT III

Date: Thu, 15 Jun 00 16:43:10 EDT
From: tom.sellers@gsa.gov
To: utsumi@fpwww.friends-partners.org
Subject: [GATEWAY:263] Iridium

Iridium: The Bidding Continues

Gene Curcio, a California-based telecommunications entrepreneur who is
leading the $50 million bid of Venture Partners Inc. to acquire the assets
of the failed Iridium LLC satellite constellation, said he was pleased with
Wednesday's proceedings and the order issued by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge
Cornelius Blackshear.

The judge ordered a June 21 status conference to review the two competing
offers for Iridium assets by Venture Partners and Castle Harlan, a venture
capital firm. The judge also acknowledged that the no-strings-attached
Venture Partners bid would be preferred if it could produce the money
needed to match the non-binding $50 million offer for the Iridium assets
>from Castle Harlan, Curcio said.

"We're happy about what happened yesterday [Wednesday], Curcio told
SATELLITE NEWS Senior Analyst Paul Dykewicz in an exclusive interview.
"We're excited about partnering with General Dynamics."

Venture Partners' bid calls for General Dynamics to replace Motorola Inc.
as the operator of the Iridium constellation. Iridium's service would be
revamped to provide voice communications to third world countries, data
bursts and meter reading for utilities.

Curcio's proposal also includes a deal with Hughes Global Space to provide
communications to the U.S. government, military and for other users such as
NATO, the World Bank and the World Health Organization.

Neil Forrest, a partner with Freeman Forrest & Levy LLP who is representing
Venture Partners in the Iridium proceedings, said July 21 is the date that
Castle Harlan is scheduled to complete its due diligence. The Venture
Partners bid is superior to the Castle Harlan proposal in many ways,
including the absence of a break-up fee, due diligence or further delays,
Forrest said.

"The judge made it pretty clear that, in light of the conditional nature of
the Castle Harlan bid, if we can satisfy the court and the other parties,
we could close the deal for the $50 million before the Castle Harlan due
diligence would be completed," Forrest said.

Motorola has set a June 30 deadline for bidders to emerge and begin paying
to operate the 66-satellite constellation. The company would start to
de-orbit the $5 billion-plus system July 1. (Satellite News, June 12)
****************************************
ATTACHMENT IV

Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 15:00:52 -0400
From: "Jonathan Mark" <jmark@castleharlan.com>
To: <utsumi@friends-partners.org>
Subject: Fwd: FW: "Rescue Iridium" workshop on 6/20th

Castle HArlan is performing due diligence on the Iridium system for the next
month. Our key objective is to find whether there is a large enough paying
market for the service. We are looking for customers who will buy bulk
minutes from us, which those customers can use or resell. Clearly, if we
cannot find enough of those customers, we will not proceed with the
investment. The question before your group and others is whether there is the
capability and the desire to band together and buy such a quantity of minutes
at what will be extremely attractive prices. Enough groups who can make that
commitment, then the deal can proceeda and Iridium will be saved.
****************************************
ATTACHMENT V

From: JIMMSL@aol.com
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 16:05:19 EDT
Subject: Re: Rescue of Iridium's 66 satellites at $5 billion (Part
II/Responses)
To: utsumi@columbia.edu
CC: Gary Garriott <garyg@vita.org>, Ben Hindley <ab367@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca>,
"D.K. Sachdev" <dsachdev@worldspace.com>, JIMMSL@aol.com, "Peter H.
Rosen" <Peter@creativity.net>, David Josephson
<david@josephson.com>,"Stephen G. Tom"
<stephen_tom@email.msn.com>,"Prof. and Mrs. Edward C. DeLand"
<edeland@anes.ucla.edu>, "Bruce P. Chadwick" <bchadwick@mindspring.com>,
Rex Buddenberg <budden@nps.navy.mil>, Hans Kruse <hkruse1@ohiou.edu>,
Edward Dodds <dodds@home.com>

Tak -
Another consideration for Iridium.

Ignore the telephony line side of the equation - The Iridium network uses a
carrier in the Ka bandidth to transmit between satellites to carry from one
gateway to another Trunks), then can use terrestial lines for the final link.
There are 11 gateways in major countries around the world.

Depending on the Ka technology in the downlink, it is possible that an
inexpensive gateway can be developed in remote areas, providing the higher
carrier bandwidth via this downlink, i.e., the trunk side of the circuit.
Demultiplexing/muxing a trunk is simpler than trying to manage the multiple
call paths on the line side of this network. This also eliminates the
expensive handset that the Iridium spec says may handle 2400 bps. Ka antennas
are small >1Meter typically so this should be inexpensive and easily installed.

The biggest issue is probably the lifetime of the constellation, unless it is
seen as a short term, early entry for Globestar or Teledesic - like systems,
but they have already reviewed this option. For humanitaran use, it would be
tragic to get it started and then see it dissolve in 5 years.

Your discussion group has once again shown that there are definite
application needs in developing, under-served areas for bandwidth and
comnnectivity. Keep up the good work.

Jim Miller
****************************************
ATTACHMENT VI

Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 04:56:46 -0400
From: John Mack <jlmack@erols.com>
To: utsumi@friends-partners.org
Subject: Re: Rescue of Iridium's 66 satellites at $5 billion (Part II/Responses)

Tak,

Just prior to Iridium's demise, I had initiated talks between Iridium
and WorldSpace (my former employer), to combine their systems to provide
virtually global Internet. The Iridium system would provide the thin
uplink and the Worldspace (WS) system the relatively fast downlink.
Utilizing the WS receiver (cost about $300) attached to a computer would
provide the ability to do telemedicine, distance education, etc., as
well as provide commercial possibilities for entities to have video
conferencing (15 frames/sec) virtually anywhere. The humanitarian
aspects could be approached through the WS foundation
<www.worldspace.org> with income from the commercial side
<www.worldspace.com> offsetting some (all?) of the operational costs.
Since Iridium collapsed I don't know where these talks ended but it
might be worth exploring the technological feasibility of such an
approach for VITA's mission as well as the mission of others who have
shown interest.

John
****************************************
ATTACHMENT VII

Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 14:12:35 -0600 (CST)
From: Ben Hindley <ab367@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca>
To: Tak Utsumi <utsumi@friends-partners.org>
cc: Multiple recipients of list GU-L <gu-l@friends-partners.org>
Subject: Re: "Rescue Iridium" workshop on 6/20th

Hi!

Thank you for the update on the workshop;

I can not attend but I will be waiting by my Computer on that day if
anyone wishes to drop me a e-mail with my comments for Canada and Africa.

I know that we can make use of the satellities in Canada and Africa,
Pakistan and South America where I am involved in Information
Communication Technology, Distance Education, TeleHealth/TeleMedicine.

We are a company that beleives in the use of Recycled and Refurbished
Computers for the world.

PLEASE keep me posted on this project and if any way I can help with this project.

All the Best at the Conference to Everyone:

Ben Hindley
****************************************
ATTACHMENT VIII

From: Uli.Knirsch@Intelsat.int
To: rboston@tenet.edu, JIMMSL@aol.com, utsumi@columbia.edu,
jpelton@seas.gwu.edu, ptknight@attglobal.net, Uli.Knirsch@Intelsat.int
Subject: RE: "Rescue Iridium" workshop on 6/20th
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 08:04:06 -0400

Thanks for setting up the meeting. I am sure we will be in touch. Some of
you might even attend tonight's "broadband from the skies" talk at Intelsat,
organized by SSPI.

Regards, Uli Knirsch
****************************************
ATTACHMENT IX

Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 15:19:58 -0400
From: "Charles and Judy Fox" <worldcitizentv@worldnet.att.net>
To: utsumi@friends-partners.org
Subject: Re: "Rescue Iridium" workshop on 6/20th

Mr. Utsumi ands John, I regret that I am faced with a grave family matter
that forces me to be absent from tomorrow's historical meeting and workshop.
I will be on travel during the subsequent week and - if permissible, I will
be in touch with John Mack regarding any way that I may still be of
assistance. Charles Fox
(410)997-7670.
****************************************
ANNEX I

Summary of Action Items for the Convening a Global Summit Meeting
For the Establishment of Global Services Trust Fund (GSTF)
(Please provide comments and suggested revisions to J. Tingley, CITI Public
Information Officer, Tingley@erols.com)

On 20 June 2000 a meeting was held at the National Telephone Cooperative
Association, 4121 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. 22203 with the following
individuals in attendance and under the chairmanship of Tak Utsumi of Glosas
and the Global University System (GUS). (See Attachment No. 1) After
reviewing information concerning the future plans for recovery of the Iridium
satellite system under new ownership and management, plus presentations on the
Worldspace and Vitasat networks and innovations in on-line Internet
instruction, the working group consider an action program for the future. In
particular, discussion focused on the possible creation of a Global Service
Trust Fund that would use all available satellite facilities to further the
cause of world-wide tele-education, tele-health and other social services such
as emergency warning and rescue.

There was agreement that, under the auspices of the Sir Arthur C. Clarke
Institute for Telecommunications and Information plus its worldwide affiliates
and partners (including Glosas, the Global University System, VITA, the
University of Surrey, and possibly Worldspace, INTELSAT and others) to focus
on the creation of the so-called Global Services Trust Fund (GSTF). A
preliminary concept paper for the GSTF that has been revised to reflect the
most recent discussions held on 20 June 2000 is presented as Attachment No. 3
to this document. The major aspects of this new fund were also outlined in a
power point presentation made by Peter Knight.

An action program and a new schedule of milestones with regard to moving
forward to create the GSTF were agreed on in an afternoon workshop and are
outlined below and provided in greater detail in the attachments to these
minutes. The main focus that was agreed to was the convening of a Global
Summit of World Leaders for the Establishment of a Global Services Trust Fund
(GSTF) to be held in December 2000. The preliminary plan would be to convene
a meeting of world leaders in Washington, D.C. in early December either at
INTELSAT Headquarters, Worldspace Headquarters or the World Bank and to seek
the participation of individuals and organizations as outlined in Attachment
No. 2. It was agreed that for this meeting to be successful that a great deal
more information would need to be compiled and that a significant amount of
organization and planning work would have to be undertaken.

In particular it was agreed that much more information was needed as to
the available technology and service capabilities that are available through
existing and planned systems to provide tele-education and tele-health
services. Further efforts need to be undetaken to seek explicit expressions
of support or commitments from satellite service providers, ground terminal
equipment providers, and user computer and telecommunications equipment. It
was also agreed that there was a need to complete an inventory of needs and
market survey of organizations around the world that would seek to use the
resources of a GSTF. This would include both a market assessment and an
effort to obtain specific commitments from organizations to support the effort
in terms of in-kind and financial support for tele-education, tele-health or
related programs.

Attachment No. 4 sets forth the responsibilities of two teams to prepare
materials that are needed over the next four months to support the feasibility
and viability of the GSTF and to enable the convening of the Global Summit for
the Establishment of the GSTF in early December 2000. Thus, preliminary
assignment of responsibilities for the preparation of these materials are also
included in Attachment No. 4 and are provided for review and agreement or
revision. These minutes are being electronically provided to all of the
meeting participants and interested individuals. It is hoped that these
minutes and the list of supporting organizations and individuals can be
perfected and expanded by the end of June 2000. It is also hoped that the
members of the two teams can assist in preparing a short statement of purpose
for the Global Summit and the basic goals GSTF once more information has been
acquired.

Minutes of 20 June 2000 Meeting and Preliminary Assignment of
Responsibilities for the Summit Meeting Prepared by Professor Joseph N.
Pelton, Executive Director, CITI.
****************************************

Attachment No.1

Attendance List for 20 June 2000 Conference

Name
Affiliation
E-mail

Reuben Abraham
Columbia Institute of Tele-Information
ra319@columbia.edu

Bernardin Arnason
4121 Wilson Blvd, 10th fl. Arl. Va. 22203 NTCA
barnason@ntca.org

Roger Boston
Houston Community College
www.teched.org

Janice Brodman
Education Development Center
jbrodman@edc.com

Tyrone Brown
World Tel Sat. Services
1776 K St. N.W. Wash, D.C. 20006
tb@wrf.com

Bruce Chadwick
Winrock International
bchadwick@winrock.org

Alice Dear
24 BP 190, Abidjan 24, Cote d'Ivoire
amdear@aol.com

Anton Keller
Consir Geneva and Swiss Investors Protection Assoc
swissbit@salami.com

Maria Kendro
NTCA, 4121 Wilson Blvd. 10th fl., Arl. Va. 22203
mkendro@ntca.org

Peter Knight
Knight-Moore Telematics for Education Development
Peter@Knight-Moore.com

Uli Knirsch
Advanced System Develop.
INTELSAT (202) 944-7164
uli.knirsch@intelsat.int

John L. Mack
John Mack & Assoc.
P.O. Box 567
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772
jlmack@erols.com

Jim Miller
Synerctics, Ltd. Seattle, Wash.
jimmsl@aol.com

Morlee Norton
NTCA
mnorton@ntca.org

Laura Fitz-Pegado
1701 1701 Hutchinson La., Silver Spring, MD. 20906
ljfitzp@aol.com

Joseph N. Pelton
Prof. GWU & Exec Dir. CITI, 4025 40th St. N., Arl, Va. 22207
ecjpelton@aol.com

D.K. Sachdev
Worldspace, 2400 N. Street N.W., Wash, D.C.
dsachdev@worldspace.com

Chitra Sharathchandra
NTCA
chitra@ntca.org

Michael Tetelman
NTCA
mtetelman@ntca.org

Tak Utsumi
Glosas and Columbia University
utsumi@columbia.edu

Steve Weisler
Hampshire College, Amherst, Mass.
sweisler@hampshire.edu
****************************************
Attachment No. 2

Candidates for Attending Summit on GSTF

Kofi Annan,
Secretary General of the UN

David Bell
President, Care International of the United States, Atlanta Georgia

G. Berretta
President and Director General, EUTELSAT, Paris, France

Jimmy Carter
The Carter Foundation, Atlanta, Georgia

Dr. Kodai
President, National Aeronautical and Space Development Agency, Japan

Conny Kullman
Director General, INTELSAT

Fredrico Mayor
UNESCO

Rupert Murdoch
The News Corporation, New York, New York

Noah Samara
Chairman, Worldspace, Washington, D.C.

Tadahiro Sekimoto
Senior Board Member, NEC, Japan

Michael Storey
President of Inmarsat

Ted Turner
Chairman, Turner Broadcasting

Dr. Yoshio Utsumi
Secretary, ITU

J. Wolfensohn
President, World Bank

Andrew Young
Atlanta, Georgia

Other possible invitees (Total participants not to exceed 25)

President, Gates Foundation
President, Markle Foundation
Director, JICA (Japan)
Director, AID (US)
Director, CIDA (Canada)
Director, DHW (Germany)
President of VITA
President of Recovered Iridium System
President of Red Cross International
President of Oxfam
President of Hughes Network Services
President of Gilat
President of Dell
President of HP
President of Alcatel Espace
President of Toshiba or Melco
President of Motorola
President of CNN
President of Reuters
Head of WHO and PAHO
Tele-education or Tele-health Organizations Making the top five commitments to support and use of GSTF
Representative of U.S. President elect

Format for Summit Meeting

The meeting would last no more than 90 minutes. The format would be
highly scripted. There would be a multi-media presentation on the purpose,
goals and five years objectives of the GSTF. Organizations that have made
commitments to support the GSTF would be highlighted in this presentation.
This would, in particular, cover satellite service providers that had
committed to making 1% to 5% of their capacity available to support the GSTF,
equipment suppliers that had made substantial commitments to supply or supply
at highly discounted prices (earth stations antennas, transceivers, satellite
radio receivers, computers, monitors, digital telephones, etc.) and
tele-education, tele-health or aid organizations that had made substantial
commitments to participate in and use the resources of the GSTF (including
their own pledge of resources or in-kind participation).

There would then be presentations from the key organizations that have
made the most important commitments. There would be a copy of vision speeches
that address where we might go from here. These might be made by such
individuals as Jimmy Carter, Andrew Young, the Secretary General of the UN, etc.

The meeting would be followed by a high profile press conference that
would announce the formation and nature of the GSTF. Arthur C. Clarke might be
invited to participate via satellite relay to talk about his initial vision of
the "electronic tutor" and how the GSTF might be able to accomplish some of
the goals he had envisioned some 2 decades ago.

Preparations

1. A series of supporting documents for the meeting will be assembled
within the next two months (Mid August).
2. Invitations will be extended to participants starting by the end of July
with the most critical individuals who are committed to bring the GSTF
into being being invited first. That is to say that CEOs that commit to
supporting the GSTF first will be invited first.
(End July through September 2000)
3. Location for pre-summit coordination meetings and time to be set by end of August.
4. Coordination committee for Summit (to be formed between end of June and end July 2000)
****************************************

Attachment No. 3

Project to Create a
Global Service Trust Fund (GSTF)
for Tele-education and Tele-health

(Version 4 - 21 June 2000)

This proposal was prepared by a working group described in the footnote at the
end of this document. This paper was presented for discussion at the
Founder's Conference for the Sir Arthur Clarke Institute for
Telecommunications and Information (CITI) held at INTELSAT Headquarters on 5
February 2000. It has been amended to reflect suggests and comments made at
that conference as well as a meeting held at the National Telephone
Cooperative Association (NTCA) on 20 June 2000 that discussed the possible
holding of a summit meeting of key world leaders in order to establish the
GSTF at the earliest possible opportunities.

Objective

Education and healthcare are basic needs, fundamental for human development.
The main goal of the proposed Coalition is to expand educational opportunities
and improve health in developing countries by enabling these countries to:
* Make full use of electronic distance education and telemedicine.
* Participate actively and fully in data-intensive and
media-intensive exchanges with both developed countries and other
developing countries.
* Participate interactively and fully in joint research,
professional development, and knowledge-building activities with
institutions and organizations in other countries.

To do this, steps must be taken to:
* Reduce the cost of broadband connectivity to a level poor
countries can afford.
* Create policy and regulatory frameworks conducive to the
development of sustainable distance education and tele-medicine programs.
* Establish high-quality applications in sufficient developing
country sites to demonstrate technical feasibility, increase
demand, and build support for more extensive use of such
technologies in developing country contexts.

Ideally all countries would have access to free or low-cost broadband
connectivity and would have the technical capacity to make use of it for
improving education and healthcare. This assumes a number of favorable
economic outcomes as well as changes in policy and regulatory environments
supporting the effective use of these technologies.

This proposal takes a more limited objective: to make available sufficient
broad bandwidth at free or highly reduced cost to enable a significant number
of developing countries to undertake major new initiatives in distance
learning and telemedicine. The fund might also seek to aid in the support of
earth station facilities, solar power systems, local switching and local loop
telecommunications facilites, and new systems of tele-education and
tele-health programming. The prime objective would be to provide access to
satellite or fiber bandwidth capacity and directly related equipment needed
for the delivery of tele-education and tele-health information. Any activity
relating to creating new programming capability would be encouraged on the
basis of developing many sources of programming in many different languages on
a decentralized basis rather than seeking to develop a single source of supply.

Background and Rationale

The Internet, with its rapidly expanding and improving infrastructure, will be
the main telecommunication media of tomorrow. It has been extended to most
countries, albeit with slow-to-medium speed in most developing countries, and
even in large parts of the developed world. But the full potential for
achieving revolutionary advances in education and healthcare in developing
countries cannot be realized with the currently available information delivery
infrastructure and at currently prevailing market prices.

Improved distance education requires much better ways of presenting
information and of enabling learners to interact with facilitators to enable
the learners to process that information into personal knowledge.

At present most electronic distance learning takes place via rather limited
programming and delivery modes. Much of the instructional programming is
limited to text and simple graphics delivered over the web and/or through
email and its derivatives (electronic fora, bulletin boards, chat rooms). On
the other, there is "room-based" or desktop-based videoconferencing, usually
with relatively small groups involved and low production values so far as the
video and audio are concerned. Both techniques allow significant interaction,
but the quality of instruction can suffer from the lack of high-quality audio
and video.

High-quality instruction is possible by broadcast television, with
multi-million dollar production budgets having been deployed to good effect in
some countries for example Annenberg/CBP in the US, BBC/Open University in
the UK, and The Roberto Marinho Foundation's Telecurso 2000 and Canal Futura
in Brazil. But there has been limited interactivity for these programs beyond
what is possible by telephone, fax and more recently email and its derivatives.

Narrow bandwidth and high telecommunications costs limit the use of streaming
video and audio on a large scale. Often telecommunications networks get
clogged even with heavy net use of more conventional kinds. Many audiences,
even in developing countries, are "spoiled" by commercial television with high
production values. Even for educational programming, these audiences do not
easily accept jerky movement, small windows, failing connections, and low
production values. The quality of tele-lectures, video inserts and the like
can only approximate the high production values of commercial television. As
for telemedicine, there is a proven need for high-definition moving images, or
at least extremely high-resolution still images for many applications. Even
with low-cost or free broadband connectivity between nations, the cost and
pricing structure of telecommunications in many developing countries keep the
cost of access to the Internet at prohibitive levels, and inappropriate policy
and regulatory frameworks do not encourage efficient use of those public
resources for education and healthcare.

In sum, what is ultimately needed is both high quality audio/video delivery
and high quality interactivity. At the outset of the GSTF it may be possible
to obtain services that involve only high quality audio or limited amounts of
interactivity. From these beginnings, however, the longer term goals can be achieved.

A true revolution in distance learning and telemedicine requires access to the
World Wide Web, allowing the flexibility to offer a variety of media. These
might include two-way audio, one way audio supplemented with broadcast
multi-media, full-motion video-conferencing up to MPEG 2 quality,
television-quality netcasting, and high-resolution image transfer for
tele-medicine. Such capabilities require medium to broad bandwidth downstream
and low to medium bandwidth upstream. Ultimately developing countries need
broadband Internet via international satellite and fiber-optic cable and this
should remain a goal, even if the initial services are at lower data rates.

The revolution in education and healthcare in developing countries also
requires a more favorable policy environment not just for telecommunications
but also for education and healthcare. A key to bringing down prices to
affordable levels is to establish national and international competition or at
least flexibility in the provision of telecommunications, education, and
healthcare services. Also rapid transfer of knowledge from developed to
developing countries needs to be possible.

Finance and Organization

Deployment of this high-speed Internet for education and health applications
in developing countries would be financed with a Global Service Trust Fund
(GSTF) for tele-education and tele-health. The Fund might be modeled on the
Universal Service Fund of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, which
provides for discounts of 20-90% on a variety of telecommunications services
and equipment for schools and libraries.

Ideally, funding would be sufficient to eliminate or greatly reduce the
telecommunications cost for qualified education and healthcare applications. A
second solution might be a subsidized International E-Rate akin to the
"E-Rate" now benefiting schools in the United States. A third option could be
to begin with free bandwidth, but raise it toward (expected to be declining)
market prices in gradual steps using the International E-Rate model.

Two separate contribution "funds" or "sources" would be established an
in-kind bandwidth transmission source and a financial assistance source. The
Coalition ideally would include a broad coalition of commercial and
governmental sources. These might include key international organizations such
as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the United Nations
Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), and the World
Health Organization (WHO) plus commercial satellite system providers,
equipment manufacturers and providers of tele-education and tele-health
providers.. The Coalition would also include international development banks,
bilateral aid agencies, foundations, and various types of companies
contributing to the Fund as well as organizations contributing education and
healthcare knowledge. The Fund could be administered in a variety of ways, but
it must have well organized, credible and financially scrupulous entity of
significant international standing in charge in the disbursement of funds.

The proposed Fund would be financed from a variety of public and private
sources, which could include:
* Overseas Development Assistance funds of countries belonging to
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
* Cash contributions from the profits of international financial
institutions such as the World Bank and the regional development banks.
* Cash contributions from foundations and companies.
* Contributions in kind from companies owning underused satellite
transponders and/or fiber optic cable for these companies, the
marginal cost of making available underused existing bandwidth is
near zero, but providing it may build future markets for sale at
(declining) commercial prices.

The Fund's bandwidth source might be allocated through a variety of means that
might even include an auction process to organizers of distance education and
telemedicine projects in qualifying countries. Providers of services, might be
required to make some commitments of resources and in-kind participation to
qualify to use the GSTF's assets. The cash source might be used for grants
to such projects, with rules favoring poorer countries and end beneficiaries,
assuring a certain geographical distribution of benefits between regions, and
so forth. Grants might also favor international knowledge sharing. All grants
would be made through open competitive process. These are only some
preliminary ideas. The details, including the establishment of a pilot version
of the Fund to test operational principles, need to be worked out during the
next stage in proposal development.

Next Steps Recommendations of the Working Group

Establishing the Fund and Coalition requires a critical mass of global support
for these new organizations. The ability to mobilize financial and in-kind
resources for the Fund depends on the credibility of the membership of the
Coalition. That credibility would be furthered by early support from such key
international entities as commercial satellite and fiber optic service
providers, multi-national businesses, national governmental aid agencies,
foundations, and agencies of the United Nations such as the ITU, UNESCO, WHO,
the World Bank Group (including the International Finance Corporation), and
the regional development banks (African Development Bank, Asian Development
Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Inter-American
Development Bank). No legitimate agency of standing would be excluded from
participating. Creation of a preliminary coalition of participants to support
the "source for bandwidth and key equipment" as well as the "financial aid
source" would be critical to the initial testing of this concept. The example
established by the Worldspace organization to provide access to 5% of their
total system capacity by means of the Worlspace Foundation is one model that
seems to have special promise.

To that end, the working group recommends that:

1. A more polished and developed draft of the proposal be put before
major international conferences in 2000. Further it would be
highly desirable for the Clarke Institute for Telecommunications
and Information to undertake in partnership with others around the
world to organize a Summit of World Leaders Concerning the
Establishment of the GSTF.

2. An intensive effort be made to enlist the support of the
leadership of the key international institutions mentioned above,
facilitating the mobilization of bilateral aid agencies,
foundations, and multinational corporations and to bring them
together at a World Summit in Washington, D.C. in December 2000.

3. Working groups on the various aspects to be funded and supported
by the GSTF should be organized prior to this World Summit
Meeting. These working groups would include representatives of
other interested international organizations, bilateral aid
agencies, companies, foundations, and other NGOs, as well as of
relevant information and telecommunications industry
organizations, e.g. the Global Information Infrastructure Commission.

Comments concerning this paper should be sent either to Tak Utsumi, Peter
Knight or Joseph Pelton at the following e-mail addresses:
utsumi@columbia.edu, ptknight@attglobal.net, ecjpelton@aol.com.

It is further hoped that providers of satellite or fiber optic system capacity
would be willing to join in further working group discussions to shape the
framework for the "pilot version" of the GSTF for tele-education and tele-health.

_____________________

* The first draft of this proposal was developed by Dr. Takeshi Utsumi,
Chairman of the GLOSAS/USA and presented at the International Workshop and
Conference on Emerging Global Electronic Distance Learning (EGEDL'99) held
August 9th - 13th, 1999 at the University of Tampere, Finland. EGEDL was
sponsored by Alprint, the British Council. Finnair, Finnish Broadcasting
Company, Foundation for The Support of The United Nations (FSUN), Japanese
Medical Society of America, Ministry of Education Finland, Pan American Health
Organization (PAHO), PictureTel, Sonera, Soros Foundation/Open Society
Institute, United States Information Agency (USIA), United States National
Science Foundation, and the Information and Development Program (infoDev)
administered by the World Bank. The conference conclusions included a
recommendation to work for the establishment of the Fund and the Coalition.
Subsequently a working group was formed at a meeting held at the Pan American
Health Organization to further develop the proposal and include policy
conditionality. This proposal was prepared by that working group composed of
Peter Knight (Knight-Moore Telematics/CDI), Frank Method (UNESCO), and Lane
Smith (USAID). Helpful comments were received from Carlos Braga and Michael
Moore. Joseph Pelton. and Bruce Ross-Larson provided editorial assistance and
revisions to adapt this paper to a format common to the project proposals
being considered by the Founder's Conference of the Clarke Insitute for
Telecommunications and Information.
****************************************

Attachment No. 4

Actions to Be Taken to Support the GSTF Initiative

GSTF WEB SITE

It was proposed, as a key part of the CITI web-site, to create a GSTF homepage
to address the planning for the GSTF. This would be undertaken as one of the
CITI projects. This will be explored by Professors Joseph Pelton (GWU/CITI)
and Scott Madry (University of North Carolina/CITI) with the objective of
providing as must available information to all participants and planners for
the GSTF within the next two weeks to a months time.

GSTF Supporting Document Number 1: The Needed Technologies (Options and Costs)

(This paper would be prepared by a team headed by Gary Gariott. It would seek
the input and supporting analysis from Jim Miller, John Mack, Marty Hoffert,
D.K. Sachdev, Uli Knirsch and Joe Pelton)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper would be to identify the various options
that are available or will be available within two years to provide national,
regional, or global tele-education services, tele-health and tele-medicine
services (and possibly emergency warning and rescue operations.

This paper will describe the technical options for delivering such services
and a "typical profile" for each delivery system.

1. Option One: Service delivery to a remote village via conventional
communications satellite and local wireless loop systems where village
does (and does not) have electricity. (i.e. Intelsat, Eutelsat,
Panamsat, Cyberstar). This would include asymmetric services between
64kbps to 2 Mbps downstream and 4.8 kbps to 64 kbps upstream)

2. Option Two: Digital Video Broadcast service to remote villages at speeds
up to 6 Mbps with alternative upstream return via little leo messaging
or 2.4 kbps via mobile satellite systems. (Intelsat or Cyberstar
(downstream) and Orbcom (upstream), Regional Satellite systems
(downstream) and Vitasat (upstreams), etc.)

3. Option Three: Radio and Multi-media broadcast with alternative
downstream services to request different educational and health
programming to be broadcast. (Worldspace (downstream 16 kbps and 128
kbps) and Orbcom or Recovered Iridium or Globalstar upstream at 2.4 kbps).

4. Option Four: Asymmetric Mobile Satellite Service via Inmarsat or ICO
Ltd. (432 kbps downstream) and 144 kbps upstream).

5. Option Five: Other option to be identified.

This analysis would indicate:
1. The educational or health care purpose that could be served via each option,
2. The bandwidth (and time periods of service) associated with each option.
3. The type of remote village terminal equipment access and connectivity
required to deliver the service
4. The earth station and telecommunications equipment required
5. As applicable the power requirements that would need to be supported by
battery or solar or other means.
6. The local human resource equipment needed to deliver the service (and
the skill level and training that would be required)
7. The cost of the equipment and human resources that would be required.
(This should give consideration to such costs as transportation,
shipping, insurance, Maintenance and repair, and duties or tariffs that might apply.)

(Note: It should be noted that one of the objectives of the GSTF would
not only be to have equipment donated or made available at reduced cost
but to have local duties and tariffs associated with tele-education,
tele-health and emergency communications to be eliminated.)

GSTF Supporting Document Number 2:

The Assessment of Market Demand for GSTF on a
Global Basis as well as Price Sensitivity of Demand

(This document will be prepared by a team headed by Jim Miller and supported
by the following individuals: Peter Knight, Joe Pelton, Gary Garriott, D. K.
Sachdev and Jack Tyman, Alice Dear, Janice Brodman, Tak Utsumi, Marlee Norton,
John Mack, Laura Fitz-Pegado, Frank Method and others to be identified)

The purpose of this paper is to undertake a global market review of the need
and level of support for the creation of the GSTF. This paper will be in the
form of a survey. This survey will be presented in the form of a geographic
market survey with the results being broken down by region and/or country for:
Asia/Pacific, Africa, Middle East, South and Central America. It will also be
broken down by function as to tele-education (primary, secondary, higher),
tele-health services (general), telemedicine (diagnostic, training, and direct
medical services), and other (emergency warning, emergency recovery, peace
keeping, other). This format would allow anyone to see what regions are
covered as well as which activities are covered on a functional basis.

This report would have two major sections. On one hand it would indicate which
satellite or telecommunications service provider or telecommunication and
computer equipment provider would be willing to make a commitment to the GSTF
(by means of a letter, contract, other) and the time period and scope of this commitment.

The second section would record which organizations would like to benefit from
the GSTF by providing tele-education, tele-health or other services. This
information would be recorded in the form of interviews, survey results,
letters of intent or letters of commitment. In both sections the objective
would be to obtain firm letters of intent or commitment that would not only
indicate interest but would commit resources to the GSTF.
****************************************

Return to Global University System Mid-2000 Correspondence

List of Distribution

Ben I. Haraguchi, J.D.
Secretary of GLOSAS/USA
Former President
Foundation for the Support of the United Nations (FSUN)
809 United Nations Plaza, Suite 1200
New York, NY 10017
USA
Tel: +1-212-986 8114
Fax: +1-212-986 8131
haralaw@cs.com
http://www.fsun.org

Peter T. Knight, Ph.D.
Knight, Moore - Telematics for Education and Development
Communications Development Incorporated (CDI)
Strategy, Policy, Design, Implementation, Evaluation
1808 I Street, NW, 7th Floor
Washington, DC 20006, USA
Tel: 1-202-775-2132 (secretary), 1-202-721-0348 (direct)
Fax: 1-202-775-2135 (office), 1-202-362-8482 (home)
IP for CU-SeeMe: 198.77.80.46
ptknight@attglobal.net
peter@knight-moore.com
webmail: ptknight@netscape.net
http://www.knight-moore.com
http://www.cdinet.com
http://www.knight-moore.com/partners/partnerindex.htm -- bio
http://www.knight-moore.com/projects/GSTF.html -- about GSTF

P. Tapio Varis, Ph.D, Professor
Acting President, Global University System
Chairman, GLOSAS/Finland
Professor and Chair
Media Culture and Communication Education
Hypermedia laboratory
University of Tampere
P.O.Box 607
FIN-33101 Tampere
FINLAND
Tel: +358-3-215 6110
Tel: +358-3-614-5247--office in Hameenlinna
Tel: +358-3-215 6243--mass media lab in Tampere
GSM: +358-50-567-9833
Fax: +358-3-215 7503
tapio.varis@uta.fi
http://www.uta.fi/~titava

Dr. Marco Antonio R. Dias
Vice President, Global University System
Consultant of United Nations University
Former Director, Division of Higher Education of UNESCO
36, Rue Ernest Renan
92.190 Meudon
FRANCE
Tel: +33-1-45 34 3509
+33-1-45-68-3009 (UNU office in Paris)
Fax: +33-1-45 34 3509
mardias@club-internet.fr
m.dias@unesco.org

Anton Keller
Secretary
Swiss Investors Protection Association (SIPA/ASDI)
Consir
Box 2580
1211 Geneva
Switzerland
Tel/Fax: 011-41-22-740-0362
Mobil: +41-79-604-7707
swissbit@solami.com
www.solami.com/consir.htm
www.solami.com/a7home.htm

Uli Knirsch
Advanced System Development
INTELSAT
3400 International Drive, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008-3098
202 944 7164
Uli.Knirsch@Intelsat.int
Or,
Home:
6513 32nd Street
Falls Church, VA 22046
703-532-0608
knisch@erols.com
www.resumecard.com/knirsch

Mr. Jim Miller
President
SYNECTICS, Ltd.
2 Nickerson Street, Suite 100
Seattle, WA 98109-1652
206-283-9420
206-283-4136
Mobile: 206-619-2144
Fax: 206-283-4538
Paging: 206-955-1036
ShareVision: 206-283-4538 (call 206-283-9420 first)
ISDN Equipped - 206-218-0027/8 (call 206-283-9420 first)
jimmsl@aol.com
jwm@synecticsltd.com
http://synecticsltd.com
E-Rate SPIN - 143004591
74640.2214@compuserve.com

Steve Weisler
Dean of Cognitive Science
Hampshire College
Amherst, MA 01002
sweisler@Hampshire.edu

Gary Garriott
Director, Informatics
Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA)
1600 Wilson Blvd., Suite 500
P.O. Box 12438
Arlington, VA 22209-8438
703-276-1800 X19
Fax: 703-243-1865
garyg@vita.org
vita@vita.org
ECONET: VITA
Telex: 440192 VITAUI
Cable: VITAINC
www.vita.org/satvitpo.htm -- Press release on Consorcio SAT/SatelLife/VITA
www.vita.org/consort.htm -- Press release on satellite-users coalition
www.vita.org/slife.htm -- Press release on SatelLife-VITA

Bruce P. Chadwick
Winrock International
Team Leader, Knowledge Portal for Sustainable Development
bchadwick@winrock.org
bchadwick@mindspring.com
bruce@chadwick.org
www.bruce.chadwick.org
www.winrock.org

John L. Mack, CEO
John L. Mack & Associates
International Telecommunications Investment Consultant
P.O. Box 567
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772-0567
301-627-2188
Fax: 301-627-2188
jlmack@erols.com

Alice M. Dear
President, Alice M. Dear & Associates
24 BP 190
Abidjan 24, Cote d'Ivoire
202-271-5885
Amdear@aol.com

Reuben Abraham
PhD Candidate (Communications)
Research Scholar
Columbia Institute of Tele-Information (CITI)
Columbia University
Suite 1A Uris Hall
3022 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
tel: (212) 854 4222/854 8192
Fax: (212) 854 1471
ra319@columbia.edu

Dr. Joseph N. Pelton
Senior Research Scientist
Institute for Applied Space Research, Rm 340
George Washington University
2033 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20052
202-994-5507
Fax: 202-994-5505
ecjpelton@aol.com
jpelton@seas.gwu.edu
Or,
Acting Executive Director of CITI
Vice-Chair of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation of the U.S. (ACCFUS)
Arthur C. Clark Institute for Telecommunication and Information (CITI)
4025 40th Street North
Arlington, VA 22207
(703) 536-6985
ecjpelton@aol.com
http://www.informatics.org/clarke/index.html
http://www.informatics.org/clarke/projects.html

Dr. Janice Brodman
Director, Center for Innovative Management and Training Technologies
Education Development Center, Inc.
55 Chapel Street
Newton, MA 02158-1060
617-618-2620
617-969-7100 EXT. 2620
FAX: 617-332-6405
JaniceB@edc.org
jbrodman@edc.org

D.K. Sachdev
Senior Vice President
Engineering & Operations
Worldspace Corporation
2400 N Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20037 USA
Tel: 202 969 6000
Direct: 202 969 6210
Fax: 202 969 6003
dsachdev@worldspace.com
www.worldspace.org
www.worldspace.com

Lauri Fitz-Pegado
1701 Hutchinson La.
Silver Spring, MD 20906
ljfitzp@aol.com

Tyrone Brown
WorldTel Satellite Services
1776 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006
tb@wrf.com

Marlee R. Norton
Director of Program Development
National Telephone Cooperative Association (NTCA)
4121 Wilson Boulevard, 10th Flr.
Arlington, VA. 22203
Tel: 703-351-2007
Fax: 703-351-2027
E-mail: mnorton@ntca.org
Website: www.ntca.org

Maria A. Kendro
National Telephone Cooperative Association (NTCA)
4121 Wilson Boulevard, 10th Flr.
Arlington, VA. 22203
mkendro@ntca.org

Bernardin Arnason
National Telephone Cooperative Association (NTCA)
4121 Wilson Boulevard, 10th Flr.
Arlington, VA. 22203
barnason@ntca.org

Michael Tetelman
National Telephone Cooperative Association (NTCA)
4121 Wilson Boulevard, 10th Flr.
Arlington, VA. 22203
mtetelman@ntca.org

Chitra Sharathchandra
National Telephone Cooperative Association (NTCA)
4121 Wilson Boulevard, 10th Flr.
Arlington, VA. 22203
chitra@ntca.org

Roger Lee Boston
Rockwell Chair/Instructor
Distance Education/Technology Center
Houston Community College System
4310 Dunlavy Street
P.O.Box 7849
Houston, Texas 77006
USA
Tel: +1-713-718 5224
Fax: +1-713-718 5301
rboston@tenet.edu
boston_r@hccs.cc.tx.us (secondary)
http://www.rboston.com
http://www.teched.org/
http://www.hccs.cc.tx.us
http://www.teched.org/Finland
http://www.teched.org/ChinaLive
http://www.teched.org/starlink
http://www.teched.org/hist00/brazil/

Mr. Uri Bar-Zemer
Unisat
48 Montague St.
Providence RI 02906
Tel: 401 272 0305
Fax: 401 272 1211
Uri@ids.net

Richard Line
MA Cambridge and Stanford Universities
Editor and Publisher
Videoconferencing Insight
A global perspective on videoconferencing
The world's leading publication on videoconferencing
IMP Publications
ATM House
28 Roman Road
Hove, East Sussex, BN3 4L4
United Kingdom
+44-1273-381 300
Fax: +44-1273-381 310
impconsl@pavillion.co.uk<<August 26, 1999>>Did not work.
newseditor@videoconferencing.co.uk
http://www.videoconferencing.co.uk
http://www.schoolsconnect.com
http://www.vcinsight.com/

Jonathan Mark
Castle Harlan
New York, NY
212-644-8600
jmark@castleharlan.com

Charles Storer
Robert Marston & Associates
212-371-2200
cstorer@marstonpr.com

Kimberly K. Obbink
Director
Burns Telecommunications Center and Extended Studies
128 EPS Building,
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT 59717-3860
USA
Tel: +1-406-994 6550
Fax: +1-406-994 7856
kobbink@montana.edu
http://btc.montana.edu

Robert J. Rodrigues, M.D.
Regional Advisor in Health Services Information Technology
Essential Drugs and Technology Program
Division of Health Systems and Services Development
Pan American Health Organization
Regional Office of the World Health Organization
525 Twenty-Third Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20037
202-974-3812
202-974-3826
Fax: 202-974-3614
rrodrigues@paho.org
NetMeeting Server: ils.paho.org
http://www.paho.org

Ben Hindley
ICT Consultant, Distance Education Consultant
President
TeleMED International, Canada
H. Peace and K. Barn (ICT STORE) International Limited
201-502 Tait Crescent
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Canada, S7H 5L2
(306) 374-0346
ab367@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca
http://www.ictaccessforall.com

Mr. Charles and Judy Fox
Director
WORLDNET Television and Film Service
U.S. Information Agency
601 D Street, N.W., Room 5000
Washington, D.C. 20547
202-501-7806
Fax: 202-501-6664
worldcitizentv@worldnet.att.net
**********************************************************************
* Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman, GLOSAS/USA *
* (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.) *
* Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education *
* Founder of CAADE *
* (Consortium for Affordable and Accessible Distance Education) *
* President Emeritus and V.P. for Technology and Coordination of *
* Global University System (GUS) *
* 43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-3998, U.S.A. *
* Tel: 718-939-0928; Fax: 718-939-0656 (day time only--prefer email) *
* Email: utsumi@columbia.edu; Tax Exempt ID: 11-2999676 *
* http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/ *
**********************************************************************

Return to Global University System Mid-2000 Correspondence