Satellite Phone Communications Suddenly Booming

[Guest]

Iridium, (which was a catastrophic failure just over a decade ago as Motorola's $5 billion satellite went down in flames and was sold to an investor for just $25 million), has established itself as a solid business.

Satellite Phone Communications Suddenly Booming : Read more

 

[ikyung]

$1000 per handset and $1 per minute?? What...

 

[loomis86]

It would be nice if we could do away with cell phones...but not at those prices.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

[citation][nom]ikyung[/nom]$1000 per handset and $1 per minute?? What...[/citation]

This is no ordinary phone. This is for the people who're willing to pay to get guaranteed connection, anywhere[/b[.

 

[igot1forya]

Even still, it's not a guaranteed service, there are some places it surprisingly does not work. It is also pure line-of-site. So not as simple as a cell phone - but when you are stuck in the middle of nowhere and in a crunch - $1/minute is well worth the price.

 

[JasonAkkerman]

What? No comparison between the hardware cost and Apple yet?

 

[Guest]

The only place it doesn't work is indoors. It is the only satallite service with truly 100% global coverage, at least outdoors. Using the voice used to suck, the vocoder was terrible, but their low rate data service is great for lots of low BW applications where there is no other reliable service.

 

[Guest]

How many minutes does it take to say, "I'm stuck in the Mojave desert with no food or water, send help?"

I'd gladly spend the money if it were an option for me.

 

[_Cubase_]

Not, they can't release these! What are horror movies going to do now once the infamous "no signal" trick becomes a thing of the past!?

 

[jacobdrj]

[citation][nom]_Cubase_[/nom]Not, they can't release these! What are horror movies going to do now once the infamous "no signal" trick becomes a thing of the past!?[/citation]
All it will take is a spooky fog, or a thunderstorm, and the movie plot device continues...

 

[alyoshka]

Well, this would relate to an article sometime back when the whole setup was sold and I said hell's at that price I could end up owning to Sats up in the sky....well, as for Afghanistan I wouldn't like to comment but as it says here
"around 451,000 billable subscribers in the commercial space (and industries such as maritime, aviation, oil and gas, mining, leisure, forestry, construction, transportation and emergency services) and 49,000 billable government users"
Believe me most of them aren't in the US.... a 20% US usage and an 80% Undisclosed Govt. Usage, no one said anything about it being a legitimate govt.

 

[alyoshka]

Maritime--- Most Probably Somali Pirates
Aviation---- Guess who???
Oil&Gas---- Guess Who...
Mining-----Blood Diamonds......
Leisure---- Who has the dough to cough out at those rates.....
Forestry---- Columbia....
Transportation----- Mexico and other places with max people being transported for ransom or across the border....
Construction---- Covert Nuke Sites.... Deployment sites....???
Emergency Services---- SOS, I'm in a bomb shelter with the Americans bombing my ass....

That actually really is the user lot.

 

[climber]

For those people in the transportation industry i.e. trucking who are completely out of standard cell phone range this could and probably is a god send. "Ice Road Truckers" anyone?

 

[jabliese]

Nice to hear they are still around and making a profit.