Cathy Lewis speaks with her son, who serves in the Peace Corps in a remote locale in the tropical rainforest in Ecuador, every week with satellite phone
Wireless World: 'Sat' phones on the rise
By GENE KOPROWSKI, United Press International
A weekly series by UPI examining emerging wireless telecommunications technologies.
[Excerpt]
CHICAGO, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Cathy Lewis speaks with her son, who serves in the Peace Corps in a remote locale in the tropical rainforest in Ecuador, every week.
The mother and child conversation is not via conventional telephony, however, for there are no landlines there. The call comes via a satellite phone, shot up through the atmosphere and transmitted via communications satellites in low Earth orbit, to her home in the United States.
"These phones get service in places where there is no regular phone service," Lewis told United Press International. "It works great."
Close to a decade after companies like Motorola Corp., Globalstar LLC, Teledesic and other technology pioneers started touting satellite phones, they are coming into their own.
Whether it is in New York City at the Republican National Convention -- where planners are renting sat phones in case a terrorist attack cripples the mobile phone network, or at sea, near Fiji, for photographers conducting a photo shoot for a major magazine, satellite phones are emerging as a viable, if costly, way to communicate anywhere with anyone at anytime.
The satellite phone industry debuted during the 1990s with a lot of hype. Commercial systems did not start operating in earnest until about three years ago. The satellite phone companies went through a number of years of troubles, financially and technically.
Some problems persist today, as when a satellite in a provider's network fails. There are some successes as well.
Iridium Satellite LLC, which has 66 satellites, boasts about 100,000 subscribers, just behind Globalstar's 110,000 subscribers.
