The SPACEWAY system was originally envisioned as a global Ka band communications system by Hughes Electronics (External Link) (External Link). When the project to build the system was taken over by Hughes Network Systems headquartered in Germantown Maryland, USA(External Link), a subsidiary of Hughes Electronics, it was transformed into a phased deployment initially only launching a North American satellite system. This is in comparison to other more ambitious systems such as Teledesic (External… (More on Spaceway)