Satellite Phones And The Future

Satellite telephones rely on
technology that was initially developed for military purposes. Like the
Internet, the use of this technology has witnessed a dramatic shift to
commercial use but the military implications were again reinforced during the US
conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Iridium system played a vital role in
providing the commanders in Washington with real time data that was crucial for
many victories. More than 20,000 troops were supplied with satellite phones for
exclusive use by the Pentagon and as permitted by the US DoD. This makes it
clear that the military is going to continue its dependence on satellite phone
technology as much as civilians are crazy about new services on their cell
phones. Another aspect of satellite phones is that local agencies like police,
firefighters, medical emergency teams, and similar services can now be in touch
with critical information on a real time basis.

Companies like Globalstar and
Iridium that have satellite constellations are sure to profit from this expected
boom in satellite phone usage. However, what is not clear right now is whether
the civilian and military satellite phone service providers will remain united,
as is the case with Iridium, or will they be specialized to separate the
commercial and military users. This decision is about ten years away when the
current satellite constellations will reach the end of their term. Another
factor to keep in mind is that though Iridium has a $200 million contract with
the Pentagon and hence a healthy user strength among government employees, it
has still survived only by applying for bankruptcy to get rid of the massive
debts that it has accumulated in building its 66-satellite constellation for
providing this service. Even Globalstar has had to go through bankruptcy and
lacking any contracts with any government agency, it is still trying to get out
of its financial troubles.

What this means is that the two
biggest providers of satellite phone services make investors worry whether this
business should be provided with further capital or not. The next generation of
satellites will have to be launched to keep the service going but so far, it is
not clear whether that will really happen. Besides this, there are problems with
receiving satellite phone signals while indoors or under a roof. Size is another
issue, where cell phones have been consistently shrinking in size; satellite
phones remain bulky and unfashionable to carry, making mass-market penetration
difficult. Finally there is the matter of price. Regular cell phone services are
so much cheaper than satellite phone services that only a very small percentage
of users actually opt for satellite phones.

If investors step back from
investing the next generation of satellites to continue providers like Iridium
and Globalstar then the military too might face problems because they would have
the phones but no satellite to serve as a signal gateway. This would leave the
US government in the tight spot of having to either buy a satellite
constellation or put up one of its own.

All that can be said at this
point that the military reliance on satellite phones is far greater than
civilian reliance and once again, like the original development was for military
use, the government will have to take some definite steps to avoid losing this
valuable means of communication.

Joseph Brochin writes about various communication technologies including satellite phones and satellite communications