High hopes

Boeing to head up Teledesic project Teledesic's target date for getting its behemoth broadband satellite project off the ground may still be five years off, but the company is wasting no time lining up good help.

The most significant recruitment yet came when Teledesic named Boeing as the prime contractor for the $9 billion effort. In that role, Boeing will oversee the design, construction and launch of the Teledesic Network, which will ultimately interconnect with landline transport networks and extend the capabilities of those networks worldwide. Boeing will be assisted in its efforts by a yet-to-be-named team of vendors.

"It's their job to find and contract with suppliers," said David Twyver, CEO of Teledesic. "No one company can do all of this."

Boeing's size and strength in the aerospace industry and experience in managing projects on a global scale contributed to Teledesic's choice, Twyver said. The fact that the vendor resides in Seattle--just a mountain view away from Teledesic's headquarters on Lake Washington--is "icing on the cake," he said.

As part of the deal, Boeing will also invest up to $100 million in Teledesic for a 10% stake. Teledesic's funding efforts lie outside the vendor realm, but it is open to some vendor investment, Twyver said.

"We didn't seek investment from Boeing," he said. "We're reserving the equity in the company for service provider partners, but it's not beyond imagination that one or two subcontractors might want equity."

Naming those partners--whose networks will hook up to the Teledesic birds--is the next step.

Teledesic has been in discussion with service providers but was waiting to engage in negotiations until details were finalized.