| All About Satellite Phone Service |  |
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The ultimate in go-everywhere phone service.
Constellations of communication satellites can provide wireless phone service no
matter where in the world you are.
Only a couple of decades ago, we understood and
accepted that for 'ordinary people', phone service required a physical phone
line and was therefore limited to obvious places like home, office, and
payphones.
Now with the explosive growth of cell phones, we
realize that phone service is not restricted to where there's a phone wire. But
there's still a lot of the planet - 85% - that isn't conveniently close to a
mobile phone transmitting tower and so there's no regular phone signal.
Satellite phones can provide the ultimate in
global coverage. But there are trade-offs. Satellite phones are bulkier than
regular cell phones, and while in theory their coverage might be close to
universal, they usually don't work inside buildings or anywhere that has an
obscured view of the sky.
Satellite phones are also considerably more
expensive to purchase, and their airtime rates are also higher.
But, if you absolutely need a convenient and
portable way of keeping in contact, they are the only option available.
How is Satellite Phone Service different to
normal cell phone service?
Wireless phone services have much in common,
whether they are using satellites or transmitting towers.
They are both using radio waves rather than land
lines to send their signal. But because satellite phones have less bandwidth
than regular cell phones, you may notice a bit poorer quality sound, and because
they are designed to use the absolute minimum amount of satellite time, they
lack some of the convenience we've come to expect of regular cell phones.
For sure, no-one would ever prefer to use a
satellite phone instead of a modern cell phone, but equally for sure, when
you're out of regular cell phone service, a satellite phone suddenly becomes a
very good alternative.
Surprisingly (perhaps) there are already a
fairly broad range of different satellite phone services available, some of
which date back 25 years or more.
Differences between Satellite Phone Services
There are several different types of satellite
phone service, with one of the more important differences being whether the
satellite phone service uses 'low earth orbit' (LEO) satellites or
geosynchronous (also called geostationary) satellites.
Geosynchronous
Geosynchronous satellites are at a fixed height
of about 22,300 miles above the earth's surface. At this height, the satellite
rotates freely around the earth at the same speed as the earth is rotating, so
the satellite appears to stay fixed in the same spot in the sky.
Geosynchronous satellites are located directly
above the equator, and - in theory if not in practice - one satellite can cover
just over one third of the earth's surface. However, it is common for such
satellites to have directional antennas, limiting the areas they provide service
to, and saving precious satellite power in the process.
Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
LEO satellites are in lower orbits. This means
they don't appear as stationary, but instead are moving relative to the earth's
surface. The height of a LEO satellite can be pretty much anything - the
International Space Station is a mere 215 miles up, Iridium satellites are at
about 485 miles, Globalstar satellites are at about 880 miles, and GPS
satellites are at about 11,000 miles altitude.
Although there's no exact point where the
atmosphere stops and space starts, by convention, 'space' is considered to start
at a 100 km (62 mile) altitude.
LEO orbits can be polar - with the satellites
circling around each pole or any other type of orbit. Polar orbiting
satellites clearly fly over the entire world over time, whereas non-polar
orbiting satellites don't reach to the very highest and lowest reaches of the
earth (the Arctic and Antarctic regions).
The lower orbit a satellite has, the less of the
earth's surface it covers, and so the more satellites that are needed to provide
global coverage.
Which is best?
Whether the phone service is based on
geosynchronous or LEO satellites has two important implications for users.
The first is the annoying phenomenon of
satellite echo or delay. Although radio waves travel at the speed of light
(186,282 miles per second), it still takes almost exactly ¼ second for a signal
to bounce up to a geosynchronous satellite and back down again. Add in the
other various delays in processing the call, and this gives rise to the annoying
satellite echo and delay that we all hate so much.
However, the time for a roundtrip to a LEO
satellite is a mere 0.005 seconds, which is unnoticeable.
The closer distance to a LEO satellite also
means that the phones can have weaker transmitters and smaller antennas - they
don't need to send or receive their signal nearly as far. This not only allows
for greater portability, but also means the phones don't need to use as much
battery power.
From a user point of view, LEO based services
are vastly superior, but only so long as there is an assurance of one of the LEO
satellites being visible in the sky. Which points to the disadvantage of LEO
satellite service, as it applies to the operator of the service. They require
vastly more satellites than do geosynchronous satellite based services.
Indeed, the Iridium service was so named because
it was initially planned to comprise 77 satellites, and the 77th element is
Iridium. As a budget move, Iridium subsequently increased the altitude of its
satellites, thereby enabling it to operate with 'only' 66 instead of 77
satellites. It kept the name Iridium, however (the 66th element is Dysprosium,
which doesn't sound nearly as nice).
Data as well as Voice
Most satellite services permit data as well as
voice to be sent and received. However, all such services have very slow data
bandwidths, typically in the realm of about 2400 baud (ten to twenty times
slower than a regular dialup modem, and 50+ times slower than broadband).
Add the slow data transfer rate to the
reasonably high cost per minute of airtime, and you won't want to use your
satellite phone to access the internet for casual web surfing!
Most of the satellite services allow for faxing
as well as data transfer.
Four Different Providers of Satellite Phone Service
Surprisingly (perhaps) there are already a
fairly broad range of different satellite phone services available, some of
which date back 25 years or more.
But few of the services offer truly portable
handsets, and affordable pricing. The following are the four major contenders :
Inmarsat Satellite Phone Service
Inmarsat is the grand-daddy of satellite phone
service. It started operations in 1979, and now has over ten different types of
voice and data service. Coverage is very good, being provided from a network of
geosynchronous satellites, but doesn't extend all the way to the north or south
poles, and varies depending on which of their different services you might
subscribe to.
However, most of these services are for
commercial users, and require large sized ground receivers. The most portable
is the Inmarsat Mini-M satellite service, which uses a briefcase sized receiver
unit weighing about 5.5lbs, and priced around $3000. Airtime rates appear to be
in the order of about $2/minute or more. The phones have their own unique
country code, in a range from 870 through 874.
Inmarsat service is acceptable for mariners and
other people who can accept a fixed mount 'base station' type installation, but
it is probably too bulky for people seeking a convenient portable solution. And
because it uses the high-altitude geosynchronous satellites, conversations have
the annoying satellite delay/echo in them.
Thuraya Satellite Phone Service
The Thuraya satellite phone service, which
started operating in 2001, provides the most limited coverage of the three
different services. Thuraya satellite phone service covers Europe, most of
Africa (but not southern Africa), the Middle East and most of Asia (but no
further east than Cambodia, very little of western China, and none of eastern
China or Japan.
This tends to limit its usefulness.
Thuraya uses geosynchronous satellites, meaning
calls are subject to delays as the signals travel up and down a 50,000 mile
journey.
Thuraya phones have a country code of 88216, and
cost about half the price of an Iridium phone. Incoming calls are free (but the
person calling you will be paying a hefty sum), outgoing calls range in price
depending on where in the world you are, from a low of below 60¢ up to a high of
$2.50.
In particular because of its limited
geographical coverage, there is little to recommend Thuraya service to US users.
Globalstar Satellite Phone Service
This service rolled out in late 1999 and is now
available in much of the world.
Globalstar has good
coverage in most major countries, but
if you're traveling outside the 120 countries they provide coverage in, your
phone becomes useless.
Globalstar phones are about half the price of
Iridium phones (and sometimes even less). Call rates are lower for calls within
the US but similar to or sometimes even more than Iridium when roaming outside
the US.
Globalstar uses LEO satellites, similar to
Iridium, but slightly higher up (about 880 miles above the earth) so needs fewer
satellites (44) to give coverage. Because the satellites are arrayed in a
Walker type constellation, they do not provide full pole to pole coverage, but
this is of relevance only to polar explorers.
This Walker type constellation has one advantage
over Iridium - it provides equal satellite coverage all around the globe (apart
from above/below 68 degrees N/S), whereas the polar orbits of the Iridium
satellites (see image at top of page) means their satellites get bunched up
towards the top and bottom of the globe, and are spread most thinly around the
equator.
A benefit of Globalstar is that you can get a US
phone number for your satellite phone. Unfortunately, a disadvantage is that
you pay for incoming calls as well as outgoing calls.
Globalstar offers data as well as voice
service. The data service is charged the same as voice - you pay their standard
rate per minute you're connected. The data transfer rate is a very slow 9600
baud, although they do have some data compression that can speed things up,
depending on the type of data being transferred to your phone.
Like Iridium, Globalstar also went through a
bankruptcy after its initial projections proved to be wildly optimistic.
Update June 2007
: Field reports from readers suggest a massive decline in the reliability of
Globalstar service, and an independent analysis by Frost & Sullivan earlier in
the year confirms this. Testing showed that while Iridium service offered a 95%
- 98% success rate on making 3 minute calls, Globalstar service failed two calls
out of every three.
This is a colossal discrepancy in service
standards, and if it continues (we believe that problems with Globalstar's
satellites may be an underlying issue) then few people would choose Globalstar
service due to its unreliability.
Iridium Satellite Phone Service
Iridium has a fascinating history.
The concept that was to become Iridium was first
mooted in the mid 1980s and the concept formalized in 1987, then developed
during the 1990s.
To start with, the idea of a global satellite
based phone service seemed gold-plated. It was backed by Motorola, had good
management, and had conducted solid market research to confirm its concept.
But - in a scenario very similar to the Edsel
some decades earlier, the market changed between when Iridium was first
conceived, in the 1980s, and when it was finally launched in 1998. Iridium was
designed as a 'world phone' for the traveling business executive. Back in the
late 1980s, there was very little cell phone service and even less international
roaming. But by the late 1990s, good quality cell phone service was much more
prevalent than Iridium had anticipated; cell phone technology had marvelously
evolved, and international roaming and compatibility - mainly as a result of GSM
technology, first introduced in 1991 - was a reality. The corporate executives
Iridium were hoping would buy Iridium's service no longer needed it - their
regular cell phone already worked satisfactorily well.
Service commenced on 1 November 1998, with the
first call being placed by then Vice President Al Gore. Unfortunately, handsets
were ridiculously expensive ($3000) and airtime similarly over-priced
($3-8/minute), and the company had marketing and equipment problems.
The service failed to win much support, with
only 10,000 subscribers by April of 1999 and less than 20,000 by August. On the
other hand, the company had a monthly interest bill on its borrowings of $40
million, as well as all the other operating expenses, with almost no income to
offset it.
To contrast the 20,000 subscribers in August 99,
only one year earlier, Iridium's CEO had predicted they would have 500,000
subscribers by the end of 1999. Plainly the company's business plan was
completely off the rails.
Bankruptcy followed very quickly, on 13 August,
1999, and its filing made it one of the 20 largest US bankruptcies up to that
time.
This is an excellent article
covering the way Iridium evolved from high-flying Wall St darling to Wall St
disgrace.
For a while it was feared the entire
constellation of satellites would be de-orbited (ie crashed into the ocean) and
the system would be discontinued. However, the network was bought at a bargain
basement price of $25 million - $6.5 million in cash and the balance on an
unsecured note - and service was continued, with the new company starting
operations in 2001.
A new Iridium rose from the ashes of the earlier
Iridium. The new company had improved satellite phones that weren't as bulky or
as expensive as before, much lower rates for service, and a more realistic
marketing plan. It still hasn't reached the half million subscribers that were
originally projected for 1999, but its numbers continue to slowly climb :
By 31 Dec 2003 it had 93,100 subscribers.
By 31 Dec 2004 it had 114,500 subscribers.
By 31 Dec 2005 it had 142,000 subscribers, and
says this gave it four profitable quarters in a row. Iridium is a private
company and so doesn't need to provide full financial data.
The current satellites are projected to remain
operational at least through 2014, with the new Iridium hoping to be able to
finance replacements out of ongoing revenues when they come due for
replacement. Even if this proves not possible, there would seem to be a
reasonable assurance of ongoing service at least through 2014.
Iridium satellite service is theoretically
available everywhere on the planet. For political reasons, it is restricted in
North Korea and North Sri Lanka.
Disaster Service
Some people choose to keep a satellite phone as
part of their disaster preparedness kit. An earthquake, hurricane, terrorist
attack, or many other things can disrupt both regular landline phone and
wireless cell phone service. But - in theory - satellite phone service should
be able to survive all such disasters, because the satellites are safely
distant, somewhere way up in the sky.
However, satellite phone service also has an
Achilles Heel. That is the point at which a phone call is routed from the
satellite that received your signal to the ultimate person you're calling. In
the case of most services, your call is routed from the satellite and
immediately to its closest ground station, and then it goes from the ground
station, as best it can, to its final destination. If its final destination is
another satellite phone, it travels back up to another satellite and down to the
phone, wherever it may be.
This means, for most satellite phone services,
there remain ground based vulnerabilities. However, Iridium is the notable
exception to this. If you are calling to another Iridium phone, your call goes
directly from your phone to the closest available satellite, then is routed
among the satellites until reaching a satellite that can then beam the call down
to the recipient.
This capability makes Iridium the most robust
network for handling ground based disasters.
In theory a single Iridium satellite can handle
up to about 1100 calls simultaneously, and the total Iridium network something
less than 66 times this number. These are not very large numbers, but neither
is the total installed based of Iridium users very large, so one would expect
that, in some form of regional emergency, the Iridium network could handle its
users' needs without appreciable congestion.
A good example of this was with Hurricane
Katrina. The hurricane knocked out over 3 million landline circuits and over
1000 cell sites. Three weeks later, only 60% of the cell phone networks were
operational and two million calls were still failing. On the other hand,
Iridium's network was completely unaffected, and for the first 72 hours of
Katrina, Iridium traffic in the Gulf region increased more than 3000%. The
number of subscribers in affected areas grew 500%.
Which is the Best Satellite Phone Service
Evaluating the different satellite services and
choosing your personal best requires you to decide which are the most important
factors for you as between issues such as coverage areas, and the cost of both
equipment and air time.
We feel that Inmarsat will have little appeal,
due to its bulky expensive equipment and geosynchronous satellites.
Thuraya has the most limited service area, and
isn't really intended as a global phone. For that reason most readers will rule
it out, reducing your choice to either Globalstar or Iridium.
Name notwithstanding, Globalstar does not have
global service. Previously, Globalstar was quite possibly your best choice if
you simply want a phone that will work everywhere in the US - something to take
with you when you're traveling outside of areas with cell phone service, and
when you still want to be able to reach the outside world, either for
convenience or in case of emergency. But recent (2007) deterioration in
Globalstar service makes it no longer satisfactorily reliable and no longer a
viable option for most people.
And so, if you're seeking truly global coverage
- a phone you can take anywhere and know it will always work - and/or want the
most disaster proof service that you know you can rely on in an any type of
emergency, then Iridium is the best choice.
Why are Satellite Phones so Expensive?
A satellite phone and service is expensive to
buy, and for that reason many people who only occasionally need satellite phone
service will choose to rent rather than buy the equipment and service, only as
and when needed.
Why are satellite phones and service so
expensive? Cell phones are usually given away for free when you sign up for new
service, and a monthly charge of $30 - $40 usually includes about 1000 free
minutes of airtime.
But a satellite phone will cost you $1495 to
purchase, and the lowest monthly usage plan costs $30/month with no free airtime
included - every minute costs an extra $1.50.
Why the huge difference in price?
There are two reasons for this :
Economies of scale
The larger US cell phone companies have tens of
millions of customers. Iridium currently (Mar 06) has about 150,000 - 100 times
smaller than major cell phone companies. The cost of its 66 satellite network
is about $6 billion, and while those are all sunk costs, the satellites will
need to be replaced at some stage.
A similar equation applies to the equipment.
Popular cell phone models sell in quantities of many millions, and the
underlying technology changes little from model to model, allowing development
costs to be split over many many units, and with most efficient high volume
production methods. But the Iridium satellite phones are selling very slowly,
and have unique technology in them.
And so, whereas your regular cell phone company
can probably make money by giving you a free phone and 1000 minutes of airtime
for only $30/month; Iridium absolutely can not.
Lack of competition and price inelasticity
You have plenty of choices when choosing a
regular cell phone and service provider. But there's only one fully global
satellite phone provider - Iridium - and only one source of Iridium handsets.
Could Iridium sell its 9505a handset for less
than $1500? Almost certainly - the underlying variable cost per handset sold,
to Iridium, is probably $50. But they doubtless reason there is no need to
reduce the handset price, because there are no competitors, and there's not
likely to be the necessary three fold increase in sales volume if, eg, handsets
sell for $500 not $1500.
Iridium might choose to drop the price of the
handset as a way of encouraging more people to sign up for their service, in a
similar way to how traditional mobile phone operators give away phones, but to
date it has resisted such temptation.
Could Iridium sell its airtime for less than the
rates it does? That is a more complex question; for sure, the variable added
cost of accepting one more call onto their network is close to zero, but they
have huge fixed costs that need to be covered. And, much like the handset
price, for people who truly need a satellite phone, $1.50 a minute is a
bargain. And for people who don't need a satellite phone, even 50¢ a minute is
probably too much. Iridium probably feels that for the type of people who need
and use its services, its prices are fair.
Future satellite phone price trends
Considering these issues above, we don't predict
major drops in either handset or airtime costs occurring with Iridium satellite
service in the foreseeable future.
Resources
If you are looking to buy a satellite phone,
Telestial
sells phones for all the three main services - Thuraya, Globalstar and Iridium.
If you are wishing to rent an Iridium phone,
both
Mobal
and
Telestial
have rental programs available. Mobal's rates are less expensive for short
rentals, and Telestial's rates become less expensive for longer term rentals.
Other companies also sell and rent satellite
phones. We know both Mobal and Telestial and can confidently recommend both
companies as having good quality product and excellent customer service.
Summary
Satellite phones are not an alternative to
regular cell phones, but are intended as an alternate communication system for
when and where cell phones don't work.
Maybe you can happily live your life without
always having a working phone beside you. But if you go traveling or
adventuring into out of the way places, you might appreciate the safety benefits
of always being able to call for help if something should go wrong, and in turn,
always being reachable by friends and family should that be necessary too.
There are several different providers of
satellite phone service. Most (American) readers will probably choose either
Globalstar or Iridium.
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