Patent ID: 6947740

Claim:
In a communication satellite having plural communication signal transmit antennas that transmit communication downlink signals to plural corresponding terrestrial communication cells, the improvement comprising: first and second contiguous, high aspect arrangements of transmit antennas, the first and second high aspect arrangements of transmit antennas transmitting the communication downlink signals to respective first and second high aspect arrangements of terrestrial communication cells in a terrestrial region that includes plural urban areas that each extend over a distance, the first and second high aspect arrangements of terrestrial communication cells each having a pair of transverse dimensions, one of which dimensions is greater than the other, the greater dimensions of the first second high aspect arrangements of terrestrial communication cells being greater than the largest distance over which any of the plural the urban areas extends; and first and second orthogonal communication band segments that are shared and fully allocable among the respective first and second high aspect arrangements of transmit antennas.