Perhaps the next Iridium.
Teledesic plans to throw a satellite network consisting of 288 plus spare sats in a low orbit. They plan to offer connections up to 64 Mbit/s for millions of users using the Ka-Band and call it "fibre-like"(see Abilene to see what you can do with a fibre TODAY!). The estimated costs are planned up to 10 billion dollars and in year 2004 they'll begin to start their service.
My tip for the future: Don't call it fibre-like, call it cable-modem like. The guys at the WDM front are doing great work...
After all, Bill Gates holds part of it, so expect to find some sats in your garden.
Editor's note: Teledesic officially suspended satellite construction on October 1, 2002, and is now defunct.