 In 1996 AlphaStar obtained $102 million in a debt offering, but analysts claim it could have claimed double that sum.In late 1996 AlphaStar's corporate parent Tee-Comm, owned by Alvin Bahnman, divested itself from the partnership it co-founded that created the Canadian ExpressVu DBS service, known today as Bell TV.As a result, ExpressVu obtained equipment and technology from EchoStar.