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AlphaStar Digital Television was a direct-to-home satellite broadcasting service for the United States market developed by Canadian firm Tee-Comm Electronics. It was the first direct-to-home satellite broadcasting service in the United States to use the internationally accepted DVB-S broadcasting standard and used 39" satellite dish receivers.〔http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Reports/fcc96496.txt FCC report on DTH with dish size and launch information〕 AlphaStar service launched in July 1996 but was discontinued completely by September 1997 with 40,000 subscribers as the company went through bankruptcy proceedings.〔http://www.adec.edu/user/skyreport/1997/sky07-02.html SkyReport.com report on AlphaStar's ongoing demise〕 The American assets of AlphaStar continue to be used under the auspices of the Champion Telecom Platform which also continues to own the AlphaStar brand.〔http://bankrupt.com/TCR_Public/980127.MBX Egyptian businessman buys assets of AlphaStar, and some 1996 debt offering information〕 AlphaStar would also have alleviated a shortage of Canadian satellite capacity by using foreign (US) satellite capacity to fill Canadian needs—indeed this was a requirement for the Canadian company to obtain its license from Canada to commence broadcasting. Tee-Comm, the parent company of AlphaStar had originally co-founded the partnership that created ExpressVu (later Bell TV) as technology supplier but later divested all interest in ExpressVu. ==History== In March 1995 AlphaStar leases 12 transponders on satellite Telstar 402R for a capacity of 110 video and 20 audio channels. On 1 July 1996 AlphaStar service launches using 12 transponders on satellite Telstar 402R at 89°W in the Ku-band. In 1996 AlphaStar obtained $102 million in a debt offering, but analysts claim it could have claimed double that sum. In late 1996 AlphaStar's corporate parent Tee-Comm, owned by Alvin Bahnman, divested itself from the partnership it co-founded that created the Canadian ExpressVu DBS service, known today as Bell TV. As a result, ExpressVu obtained equipment and technology from EchoStar. In 1997 AlphaStar was in the process of transitioning to the newly launched Telstar 5 satellite with the capacity for 200 video channels and 40 audio channels. On 3 March 1997, AlphaStar announced AlphaStar Canada service with 75 channels of service (in reality only 35 were full-time video).〔http://www.sat-net.com/listserver/ts-news/msg00469.html Announcement of AlphaStar Canada service〕 The Canadian service never launched as the company went bankrupt and ceased broadcasting operations by September of that same year. In 27 May 1997 the company initiated bankruptcy proceedings. In August 1997 the operator of the Telstar 5 satellite, then named Loral Skynet, terminated its contract with AlphaStar after asking to be released from the contract earlier that year. At 3:00 AM on 7 August 1997 the company ceased broadcasting operations, stranding 40,000 subscribers. Competitors quickly offered trade-in deals. In 1998 an Egyptian tycoon named Mahmoud Wahba was reported by the Investor's Business Daily to have bought the assets of the failed AlphaStar for $4.65 million. Champion Telecom Platform company was launched using the facilities of AlphaStar, providing uplink facilities as well as direct-to-home satellite internet broadband services.〔http://www.alphastar.com/ Current Champion Telecom Platform web site, the new name of that which was once AlphaStar, including a picture gallery of the site〕 On 19 September 2003 the Telstar 402R satellite used by AlphaStar from 1996-1997, renamed Telstar 4, experienced a circuit failure in its primary power bus and was declared a total loss. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「AlphaStar」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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