"Norris Watkins" wrote in message
om...
Hello:
1. When you make an international phone call - say from NY to China -
how does the voice data travel ? Does it have to be send to the
satellite and then received at teh ground, some distance away, then
sent to another satellite till it reaches the destination country. ? I
mean is there any direct satellite to satellite communication. Or is
it always bouncing between teh satellite and the ground at an angle.

2. Is this true for international television programming too ? I know
there are live television from Arab countries, Japan etc, in US.

Thanks
--sony

The satellites in question are at an orbit 35,000km above the earth and can
'see' a large portion of the Earth's surface. Two ground stations on
separate continents can both see the same satellite if it is correctly
located, and so they can pass a call between them. Hence USA-Europe,
USA-Asia and so forth is possible in one 'hop'. Satellite to satellite can
be done, as in the Iridium system, but I don't know of any other system
off-hand which is commercial and made it to service. There's generally not
actually a need.

Ken