Worldspace Radio: This is the most significant new technology
we have come across since the internet. It allows you to receive
web data from a special radio anywhere in the world via special
digital radios that cost less than $200 and do not require a telephone
connection and no ISP service. Incredible implications for
researchers working in third world locations. You can now
access NOA weather data anywhere in the world. Connect
your radio receiver to you PC and get MPEG 3 data from the web!
WorldSpace is the birthplace of a new medium.. digital broadcast of audio and multimedia programs directly from satellites to compact, portable receivers. Our goal has been to create something life-changing. We have. You see it in our broadcasting system. You hear it with our personal digital receivers. It is especially evident in the excitement that our product creates in the minds of people. Nothing else like the WorldSpace system exists. It is the sole provider of wireless satellite digital audio and multimedia to areas whose populations comprise 80 percent of humanity. As the system grows, its signals will touch all or parts of four continents. A constellation of three WorldSpace satellites will provide WorldSpace service to a potential audience of more than 4.6 billion people.
WorldSpace, a digital satellite radio service for the developing world, launched broadcasts for Africa in mid-October, according to news reports. The new satellite radio service will transmit an array of multilingual radio programming across Africa.
South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal will be among the first launch countries targeted in October and November, followed by Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt and Morocco shortly thereafter. More than 600 dignitaries, government officials and broadcasters attended the launch ceremony in Johannesburg, according to a WorldSpace statement.
The financing for the venture is largely private. A group of Saudi investors have helped raise $1.1 billion, according to a report in the Financial Times.
WorldSpace services include more than 25 channels of news, music, entertainment and educational programming broadcast from a satellite, AfriStar, which will cover all of Africa and the Middle East. The free, multilingual service offers news from CNN International or Bloomberg, or African regional radio from South Africa’s Kosmos Digital; Kenya Broadcasting; Egyptian Radio and Television; Media 1 of Casablanca, Morocco; Radio Sud of Dakar, Senegal; and others. Programming is broadcast in several languages, including English, Africans, French, and Arabic.