Satellite Phone
A satellite phone is a mobile telephone which communicates using satellites instead of using cell towers.
Three major satellite phone networks are currently in operation:
- Iridium
- Globalstar
- Thuraya
Iridium
The Iridium network uses 66 low earth orbit satellites in polar orbits 485 miles above sea level.
The use of low earth orbit satellites helps minimize round-trip-time, which greatly improves the perceived quality of the phone call.
The Iridum network is able to provide complete global coverage. There is no spot on the Earth where you will not be able to receive a satellite phone call through Iridium.
Globalstar
The Globalstar network utilizes 40 low earth orbit satellites orbiting at an altitude of 876 miles.
The Globalstar satellite phone network provides coverage over most of the Earths land mass. This includes most of North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Northern Asia, and Australia.
Thuraya
The Thuraya satellite phone network provides coverage over Europe, the Middle East, Central and Northern Africa, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
Thuraya offers dual-mode GSM and satellite mobile telephone services, transmitting and receiving calls through each satellite's 12.25-meter-aperture reflector.
The Thuraya geostationary satellites utilize on-board digital signal processing to create more than 200 spot beams that can be redirected on-orbit, allowing the satellite phone network to adapt to customer demand in real time.
Satellite phone calls are routed directly from one handheld unit to another, or to a terrestrial network.
The Thuraya network has the capacity for 13,750 simultaneous voice circuits.
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- Low Earth Orbit
Low Earth Orbit (LEO) refers to a satellite which orbits the earth at altitudes between (very roughly) 200 miles and 930 miles. Low Earth Orbit satellites must travel very quickly to resist the pull of gravity — approximately 17,000 miles per hour. Because of this, Lowe Earth Orbit satellies can orbit the planet in as [...]...
- Satellite Systems
The basic types of satellite systems include geostationary (GEO), Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), and Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) satellites. There are also public and private satellite systems such as Television Receive Only (TVRO), Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS), Global Positioning System (GPS), and multibeam satellite operations. Geosynchronous satellites orbit the Earth on [...]...
- Medium Earth Orbit
Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) refers to a satellite which orbits the earth at an altitude below 22,300 miles (geostationary orbit) and above the altitude of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. Medium Earth Orbit represents a series of tradeoffs between geostationary orbit (GEO) and Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Medium Earth Orbit enables a satellite provider to [...]...
- Geostationary Satellite
Geostationary satellites are located exactly above the earth’s equator and revolve around the earth in a circular orbit. Their revolving speed and direction (west to east) are exactly same as that of the earth, which makes it look stationary from the earth’s surface. The exact altitude of these satellites above the equator is approximately 36,000 [...]...
- Weather Satellite
A weather satellite is a satellite which is used by meteorologists to gather information about the weather. Weather satellites give meteorologists a view of weather patterns over a very large area. This enables meteorologists to track large weather patterns and make more accurate predictions of future weather behavior. In addition to visual monitoring, weather satellites [...]...