There are several commercial satellite phone systems operating in 2004. A satellite phone or satphone is a mobile phone that communicates directly with orbiting satellites. ...

Global providers

• Inmarsat is a long-respected "industrial-grade" provider, with voice and fax equipment installed in most sea-going vessels and many aircraft. They also provide ISDN services, famously used for news reporters' videophones during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.

• Globalstar and Iridium are recent entries to the market, having undergone financial restructuring since the dot-com collapse of the late 20th century. Most users access these systems using handheld phones for voice and low-speed data.

INMARSAT, is an international telecommunications company founded in 1979, originally as an intergovernmental organisation. ... ISDN is also short for isosorbide dinitrate Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is a type of circuit switched telephone network system, designed to allow digital (as opposed to analog) transmission of voice and data over ordinary telephone copper wires, resulting in better quality and higher speeds, than available with analog... This article covers invasion specifics. ... Globalstar is a low Earth orbit satellite constellation for telephone and low-speed data communications, similar to (and competing with) the Iridium satellite system. ... The Iridium satellite constellation is a system of 66 active communication satellites and spares around the Earth. ... Dot-com (also dotcom or redundantly dot. ...

Regional providers

• MSat provides telephone, low-speed data, and voice dispatch service to North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. The bulky equipment is similar to that used by Inmarsat. MSat users are assigned a number in the North American Numbering Plan.

• Thuraya has a coverage area focusing on Europe, northern and central Africa, and from the Middle East to Asia. Handsets used for the service are also compatible with GSM networks, and contain GPS receivers.

Professional Mobile Radio (also known as Private Mobile Radio (PMR) in the UK and Land Mobile Radio (LMR) in the USA) are radio systems such as TETRA which are designed for dedicated use by specific organisations. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... Map of Central America Central America is an area of the American continent in the Western Hemisphere. ... Central America and the Caribbean (detailed pdf map) The Caribbean, (Spanish: Caribe; French: Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Dutch: Cariben or Caraïben, or more commonly Antillen) or the West Indies, is a group of islands and countries which are in or border the Caribbean Sea which lies on... The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a system for three-digit area codes and seven-digit telephone numbers that direct telephone calls to particular regions on a public switched telephone network (PSTN), where they are further routed by the local network. ... Thuraya is a regional satellite phone provider, mainly focused on the Europe, Middle East, and Africa area. ... Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to some dispute as to Europes actual borders. ... A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... Asia is the largest and most populous region or continent depending on the definition. ... Not to be confused with Get Some Mates The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world. ... Over fifty GPS satellites such as this NAVSTAR have been launched since 1978. ...

Other providers

• Teledesic was a proposed system supported by a partnership of many large players in the industry including Microsoft, Motorola, Nextel, Boeing, Matra Marconi Space and McCaw Cellular Communications. Motorola is the primary contractor. There were to be 288 satellites at an altitude of less than 800 miles and a data access of 64 megabits per second. It is particularly significant in its huge potential for broadband internet. As of November 2004 Teledesic has not gathered the required funding for satellite launches to begin.

Teledesic was a 1990s proposal to build a commercial broadband satellite constellation for Internet services. ... In the common law, a partnership is a type of business entity in which partners share with each other the profits or losses of the business undertaking in which they have all invested. ... Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT, SEHK: 4338) is an international computer technology corporation with 2005 global annual sales of close to $40 billion USD and about 64,000 employees in 85 countries and regions which develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices. ... Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S), headquartered in Reston, Virginia, is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the United States. ... Matra Marconi Space (MMS) was a Franco-British aerospace company. ... A contractor is a legal term for one who enters into a binding agreement to perform a certain service or provide a certain product in exchange for valuable consideration, monetary, goods,services, even barter arrangements. ... The megabit is a unit of information storage, abbreviated Mbit or sometimes Mb. ... Broadband in general electronics and telecommunications is a term which refers to a signal or circuit which includes or handles a relatively wide range of frequencies. ...

Special services

• Orbcomm
• VSAT

Orbcomm ORBCOMM is a mobile satellite service provider offering high value, two-way data and message communications globally through international service licensees and in the U.S. through value-added resellers, as well as through direct sales. ... VSAT is short for Very Small Aperture Terminal. ...

See also

• satellite phone
• mobile phone

A satellite phone or satphone is a mobile phone that communicates directly with orbiting satellites. ...

External links

• Rent Satellite Phones
• http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/constellations/ for information on some satellite systems, including currently planned, and defunct proposals such as Teledesic.
• Nasa's Teledesic quicklook
• Teledesic Wimax application
• A Brief Introduction to Satellite Phone Networks
• Thuraya and Iridium satellite phones
• Understanding Satellite Phones