Please recall. We have seen this movie before. I can’t recall they name of the company but it was concurrent with the Global Crossing fiasco. During BJ’s administration. It is the early version of the Solyndra business model. Farming taxpayer funds through gummint grants.
Teledesic
Are you thinking of the sat phone business called Iridium?
After launching its constellation of satellites, they went bankrupt. Another company bought up the assets for pennies on the dollar.
Iridium.
The technology wasn’t quite “there”, grounds units were bulky, service was very expensive (think $3/minute), and was quickly overrun by competing technology.
SpaceX has their own inexpensive launch service, technology costs have plummeted, and wired connectivity is being abandoned for wireless.
I remember a company called GlobeTel Communications Corp which had a platform called Stratellite. Interesting idea at the time but management and funding problems led to bankruptcy.