Communications commission, it announced that it was giving up its license to use a large part of the radio spectrum [1] What happened to this dream? The development of cellular networks to handle data and video transmissions may have made the satellite system seem unnecessary In contrast to a satellite system that has to be built in total in order to bring in a single customer, wireless companies were able to build their customer base city by city Even if the project had become successful, the rewards to the companies and to the individuals that put their financial capital into the venture would have been a long time in coming Service was initially scheduled to begin in 2001, but Teledesic did not even sign a contract to build its first two satellites until February 2002, and six months later the company announced that work on those had been suspended Teledesic’s proposed venture was bigger than most capital projects, but it shares some basic characteristics with any acquisition of capital by firms The production of capital—the goods used in producing other goods and services—requires sacrificing consumption The returns to capital will be spread over the period in which the capital is used The choice to acquire capital is thus a choice to give up consumption today in hopes of returns in the future Because those returns are far from certain, the choice to acquire capital is inevitably a risky one For all its special characteristics, however, capital is a factor of production As we investigate the market for capital, the concepts of marginal revenue product, marginal factor cost, and the marginal decision rule that we have Attributed to Libby Rittenberg and Timothy Tregarthen Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books/ Saylor.org 677