IRIDIUM TO GROW SERVICE WITH THE LAUNCH OF NEW SATELLITES

Last month, SpaceX launched 10 communications satellites into low-Earth orbit for the Virginia-based company Iridium. In the lead up of a week filled  with heavy rain and strong winds, just a few clouds dotted the skies in Southern California when the rocket climbed skyward. The first batch in a $3 billion 72-satellite network that will replace the company’s current fleet of aging low-Earth-orbit mobile voice and data relay stations.

The stakes are high for both companies.

For SpaceX, which has now lost two of 29 Falcon 9 rockets -- one in flight and one on the ground -- a successful mission will help restore confidence in the low-cost boosters and clear the way for a resumption of commercial and government launches that have been on hold since a September mishap.

For Iridium, the launch was the first step in a complex satellite-by-satellite swap out, part of a long-range effort to retire satellites that have operated long past their design life, replace them with upgraded, more capable spacecraft and expand the company’s capabilities in an increasingly competitive commercial space operations environment.

“Frankly, it means our future, because we have to replace this network anyway,” Iridium CEO Matthew Desch said in an interview with CBS News.

Going into the long replacement operation, Desch said the first order of business is “to do no harm to our 800-and-some-thousand current subscribers. So the new satellites do everything the old satellites did, but they do a whole lot more. It really gets us seriously into sort of broadband connections.”

Range Global Service General Manager Terry Daniels tells this blogger that the Iridium launch will help initially with overall coverage and service which could mean less dropped calls and improved signal quality.

"In the big picture, the new constellation - which will take about two years to get launched and fully operational - will offer higher speed data solutions," wrote Daniels in an email. " Of course, higher data speeds come at a higher price.  All pricing is still yet to be determined, and higher speed service won't be available until late this year."

Daniels is excited about the short term prospects in which there will be due to couple of satellites that are not working at 100%.

Down the road, the software upgrades implemented after launch, the first-generation satellites can relay voice and data at ISDN-class speeds, but the Iridium NEXT spacecraft will work at up to 1.4 megabits per second or "a whole lot more performance".

To find out more about how GET, LLC, through our Iridium satellite phone partner at Range Global Services, LLC-can help your satellite phone needs, give us a call at 671-483-0789 or our website at www.get-guam.com for more information.

How and When to Use a Satellite Phone

Extreme Weather has challenged the power and telecommunications infrastructure in the Western Pacific,  As we found out in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) last year, if our cell phone towers or undersea cables are severed during a natural disaster, the connecting network between our isolated islands in Micronesia and the rest of the world is at risk of failure.  One tool that can utilized in preparation of such an emergency is the satellite phone.  

Satellite phones rely on a network of satellites that are either fixed above the Equator (Geostationary), or in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) anywhere from 500 to 1,000 miles above the surface of the Earth. These phones are rarely affected by violent storms and, depending upon their system architecture, work virtually anywhere in the world. Their compact design is familiar to many of us and very similar to that of the cell phone in our bags and purses.

For years, the traditional sat phone buyer and user has been the government, public safety agencies, shippers and energy companies.  That is changing. Private individuals are securing the use of sat phones so they do not lose their capability to communicate with the rest of the world. Why get one?

With its origins dating back to 1965, the launch 20 years ago of the first low earth orbit satellite network by Motorola and today about 66 satellites crisscrossing the globe on a continual basis via the now thriving Iridium, sat phone options are better and allow us to  communicate via this technology more than ever.

A March 2013 article in Forbes Magazine noted that if you purchase a sat-phone, expect to spend between $600 and $1700, depending upon the network. All of the phones are lightweight, small, and replicate the functionality of your cellular telephone. Some have Bluetooth and WiFi capabilities so you can use a remote headset, and wirelessly connect your computer for data access.

Today, there are options-even the use of sat phones with U.S. based SIM cards that are available for lease.

All satellite phones have a number of common characteristics that you need to be aware of in order to select the one that will work the best for you. The most important point to understand is that sat-phones are not cell phones, and they work on an entirely different network architecture and radio propagation characteristics. There are certain inherent limitations as to how they operate, and where.

Satellite phones help save lives, provide communications during natural disasters, and link users with the outside world when terrestrial-based networks fail. Cellular networks can be fragile and can be unavailable for a variety of reasons. Satellite networks rarely if ever are out of service, which means that if you have a satellite phone, you are almost guaranteed a connection with emergency services, business, government agencies, friends and family. 

They are, in my view, inexpensive communications insurance. 

To find out more about how GET, LLC, through our Iridium satellite phone partner at Range Global Services, LLC, can help your satellite phone needs, give us a call at 671-483-0789 or our website at www.get-guam.com for more information.