Posted on 04/15/2005 12:49:00 PM PDT by kerrywearsbotox
CHICAGO, April 15 (UPI) -- Remember satellite phones? During the last decade, technology companies heroically went bust vying to replace conventional mobile phones with sophisticated handsets that transmitted calls off satellites orbiting Earth.
Now, telecommunications companies seem ready for another try, but analysts told UPI's Wireless World they do not know if consumers will be more willing today to spend a dollar a minute or more for the phone service than they were a few years ago.
"The bankruptcy of Iridium has been a boon for the industry -- all of the debt was erased," said Sascha Segan, the lead analyst for telephony at PC Magazine in New York City. He was referring to the network of 66 satellites the company operates to provide worldwide mobile-phone service. By Gene Koprowski
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
It's a laws of physics problem. You just need a lot power in the handheld and a reasonable antenna and a good line of sight path and a modest amount of multipath and a lot of power in the satellite and a very very high gain spot beam and no rain and no buildings and no trees and on and on and on.
Forget it.
Plus all the hops to get to a LES (nevermind the terrestrial hops and the return trip); the lovely delay and out of order packets that the processing birds may induce. Yuck.
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