Jan 12 1975
From The Space Library
The communications satellite business was becoming one of the fastest growing businesses on earth, Thomas O'Toole said in a Washington Post article. The huge dish-shaped antennas used as telephone and television links between earth and the dozen or so orbiting comsats had sprouted up in the suburbs of Moscow and Peking, in Brazilian jungles, in the mountains of Iran, and in the deserts of Algeria. In addition, Algeria was building 14 antennas; Indonesia, 60; and Brazil, 2000. More than 90 countries were currently communicating by satellite, most using the seven INTELSAT satellites orbited by the 89-country consortium, the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization. Worldwide INTELSAT traffic was growing by 20% a year. In addition to the INTELSAT comsats, the Soviet Union, Canada, France, and West Germany, and Western Union already owned their own comsats. Japan would have one by 1977, and Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia were each planning to orbit their own.
Besides making it easier to communicate around the world, satellites were responsible for cutting the cost of overseas conversations. In 1947, a 3-min phone call from New York to London cost $12. The same call in 1975 cost $5.40. (O'Toole, W Post, 12 Jan 75, 1)
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