Rural Internet Broadband sufffers from Intelsat-7 failure

The Intelsat-7 satellite, in Clarke orbit over the equator hovering at 129 degrees west, failed Sunday due to an 'electrical fault', leaving about 20,000 customers out of service. If you know someone who used a StarBand satellite rig for broadband Internet in the boonies, well, they're down for the count and on dial-up now. You can track this issue and alt.satellite.starband on USENET.