Dr. Dobb's Journal - December 2008 - (Page 18)

D12LEAD_p2cp.qxp 10/13/08 12:09 PM Page 18 Cover Story THE MAN WHO SOLD THE SKY O3B Networks will pursue its mission by ringing the earth with MEO satellites one backed by Bill Gates that never took off. And O3B Networks’ strictly wholesale model means that they are entirely dependent on other players seeking retail opportunities in these developing countries. O3B Networks doesn’t need to have a plan to make money from wiring up Third World. But it is necessary that others construct business plans built on the opportunity that O3B opens up. For O3B, the challenge is, if we build it, will they come? But O3B Networks’ investors seem to think they are backing a winner. The $65 million that Google, Liberty Global, and HSBC have invested is roughly 1/10 of what it will take to build and launch the satellites. Wyler says the rest will be financed through a debt-equity loan. The Financial Times reports that the initial investors have the right to provide the rest of the funding if they so choose, but other investors can be brought in. I asked Wyler how the current world economic crisis would affect O3B Networks’ plans. “So far,” he said, “we have represented a very strong investment opportunity, which focuses on all the markets outside the world financial markets. So while our markets taken together represent relative safety compared to the turbulence of the New York markets and the echo impacts worldwide, and thus improves our value in the equity markets, this [crisis] does mean that the commercial debt markets are very limited. However, our debt will likely be funded by ‘project finance,’ which is government backed by export/import credit-enhancement agencies, and this is the best and lowest-cost debt anyone can get. Short answer, it reduces our options for debt, but we had not planned to use those options anyway.” After mulling over Wyler’s response, I went back and finished rereading the Heinlein story. The parallels were intriguing: A huge project mixing noble motives and a bold but hard-headed business plan, complex funding, the involvement of multiple governments, and, of course, rockets into space. Heinlein’s work is always entertaining and sometime prescient. You might enjoy reading or rereading “The Man Who Sold the Moon” yourself. I won’t spoil the story by telling you how it turned out. DDJ Download a proven, cross-platform database alternative • Unmatched performance in enterprise systems, desktop deployments, and embedded devices for over 25 years. • Simplified framework for rapid development of data-driven applications including graphical tools to speed your development and monitor critical metrics of the database engine. • Free development and free deployment in non-commercial environments. • Flexibility to use ISAM and SQL API’s within the same application. • Sophisticated feature set including 64-bit support, memory files, ADO.NET, LINQ, C#, VCL, and dbExpress. • Cross Platform support including Windows, UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X, and more. • OEM Database Engine simplifies your deployment with a single executable and flexible licensing options. Prove it to yourself in six minutes. 18 Dr. Dobb’s Journal l www.ddj.com l Download today! www.faircom.com December 2008 http://www.faircom.com http://www.faircom.com http://www.ddj.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Dr. Dobb's Journal - December 2008

Dr. Dobb's Journal - December 2008 Contents Friday Night Fish Fry Alia Vox Developer Diaries Conversations The Man Who Sold the Sky Performance on Rails LINQ-to-SQL and T-SQL A Remote Java RMI Registry Beyond B-Trees File Descriptors and Multithreaded Programs Effective Concurrency The Agile Edge Swaine's Flames

Dr. Dobb's Journal - December 2008

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