The Communications Platform -- Key to Affordable Services for the Small User

Abstract

The paper will start with a discussion of the economics of communications and small users. It will be shown that the key is reduction of ground segment costs (which today far exceed that of the space segment) by elimination of the "tails" and by reducing the size and complexity of earth stations. The resulting services are a Customer Premise Services (CPS) network and a mobile service. The basic technical requirements of these services are discussed.