ICO Global Communications
ICO Global Communications (Holdings) Limited (NASDAQ: ICOG) is a mobile satellite services company based in Reston, Virginia.
The company is seeking to build a hybrid satellite and terrestrial network to broadcast wireless voice, data, and/or Internet services (including video) to mobile and portable devices.
In April 2008 it launched the geosynchronous satellite, ICO G1, which at 6,634 kilograms (14,625 lb) was claimed to be the largest commercial satellite ever launched at the time.
The U.S. subsidiary ICO North America was renamed DBSD North America shortly before entering prearranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2009 to rearrange financing on $750 million in notes that were due in August 2009. The company in May 2009 said the North America operation was still a development stage enterprise and was not making any money. Also in May 2009 the European Commission refused to license ICO's European subsidiary ICO Satellite to use the S Band. ICO is challenging the ruling. On Jan. 31, 2011, Dish Network announced they plan to acquire DBSD North America for $1 Billion US, pending approval from the Federal Communications Commission.
Read more about ICO Global Communications: Corporate History, Early Satellites, G1 Satellite
Famous quotes containing the word global:
“The Sage of Toronto ... spent several decades marveling at the numerous freedoms created by a “global village” instantly and effortlessly accessible to all. Villages, unlike towns, have always been ruled by conformism, isolation, petty surveillance, boredom and repetitive malicious gossip about the same families. Which is a precise enough description of the global spectacle’s present vulgarity.”
—Guy Debord (b. 1931)