Satellite Phones.Communication is the way of man’s expressing thoughts and opinions. It involves sharing the message that you want to impart to other people. It is the tool for understanding each other.
What would be the world be like if human beings were unable to communicate with one another? A world of chaos.
People used to communicate simply by talking at each other, but they found it difficult if the message had to be transmitted to far places.
But as time went by, through the utilization of the modern day technology, things become easy. Started from the telephones at home, down to the cellular phones and the recent invention, the satellite phones.
How do these satellite phones work?
Satellite phones are invented in case of emergency and unexpected circumstances. They allow you to have voice and data communication for instances that the local landline and the cellular systems are disrupted. This will serve as your ultimate resort for communication in the event that the telephone infrastructure cannot manage to handle the volume of calls or there is a disruption that occurred to the network.
Satellite phones are very different from cellular phones. Unlike the latter, it does not make use of the call towers. Rather, they use Low Earth Orbiting Satellites. The moment that you turn on the satellite phone, it will already connect to the any number of satellites that shows compatibility to yours.
When you make a call the signal of the phone goes to a satellite that is directed down to a ground station or a gateway that is also directed to your call destination. The gateway processes will take care of the switching of the phone rather than the cellular network. This is the solution for those who worry about places that do not have network. The gateway allows you to use your phone even if when you are in an area that is far from any cell tower.
See how convenient satellite phones are. In event of an emergency a satellite phone is a valuable asset and could mean the difference between life and death where communication is critical. It will be an instrument towards saving the world, because despite the odds you can still communicate with others.
Nicola Kennedy publishes articles and reports and provides news, views and information about communications and Satellite Phones at Satellite Telephones Information.
This article may be reprinted in full so long as the resource box and the live links are included intact. All rights reserved. Copyright Satellite-Telephones
by: Nicola Kennedy
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
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
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
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Satellite Phone Systems
Satellite phone systems are now getting popular because of the need for people to communicate even from the remote corner of the world. Communication is taking new strides of its own and mere cable connections and radio lines are not able to satisfy the growing need for wider coverage.
Satellite phone systems are now necessary, because the cable lines cannot be fixed to all the parts of the earth and the bandwidth of radio frequencies, which connected most of the parts on the surface of the earth, is exhausted. The satellite phone systems include Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites. LEO satellites are preferred to geo stationary satellites because the latter introduces delay. This delay introduced by geo stationary satellite can vary with the distance at which it is placed. The least delay is about 0.5 seconds and this is a major disadvantage of geo stationary satellites so we go in for LEO satellites that have become a part and parcel of the satellite phone systems.
The system of satellite phones include not a single LEO satellite, but a constellation of LEO satellites, this is done because the LEO satellites are placed close to the earth and so they revolve faster than the earth making them invisible at times. So when one satellite is moving out of the horizon, another LEO satellite comes up close by to receive the calls.
The technology implemented by the satellite phones depends on the type of service providers like GlobalStar systems and Iridium systems. Satellite phone systems also include the various techniques used for the transmission of data, be it audio or video signals.
Some companies like the Iridium uses time division multiple access scheme to increase the number of calls that can be attended. It has satellite-to-satellite connections as a part of the phone systems thus handsets work directly with the satellites. Another satellite phones system, the GlobalStar implements new digital technology called code division multiple access and satellites for attending the traffic of calls.
In this system, satellites are used only as relay stations that is, they receive and forward calls to the gateways on the earth and the call reaches the public switched telephone network. Regardless of the technology used, the main aim of the satellite phone systems and service providers is to keep their customers in contact wherever they go.
by:Jason Gluckman
Satellite phone systems are now necessary, because the cable lines cannot be fixed to all the parts of the earth and the bandwidth of radio frequencies, which connected most of the parts on the surface of the earth, is exhausted. The satellite phone systems include Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites. LEO satellites are preferred to geo stationary satellites because the latter introduces delay. This delay introduced by geo stationary satellite can vary with the distance at which it is placed. The least delay is about 0.5 seconds and this is a major disadvantage of geo stationary satellites so we go in for LEO satellites that have become a part and parcel of the satellite phone systems.
The system of satellite phones include not a single LEO satellite, but a constellation of LEO satellites, this is done because the LEO satellites are placed close to the earth and so they revolve faster than the earth making them invisible at times. So when one satellite is moving out of the horizon, another LEO satellite comes up close by to receive the calls.
The technology implemented by the satellite phones depends on the type of service providers like GlobalStar systems and Iridium systems. Satellite phone systems also include the various techniques used for the transmission of data, be it audio or video signals.
Some companies like the Iridium uses time division multiple access scheme to increase the number of calls that can be attended. It has satellite-to-satellite connections as a part of the phone systems thus handsets work directly with the satellites. Another satellite phones system, the GlobalStar implements new digital technology called code division multiple access and satellites for attending the traffic of calls.
In this system, satellites are used only as relay stations that is, they receive and forward calls to the gateways on the earth and the call reaches the public switched telephone network. Regardless of the technology used, the main aim of the satellite phone systems and service providers is to keep their customers in contact wherever they go.
by:Jason Gluckman
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)