 A Thuraya satellite phone Thuraya is a regional satellite phone provider, mainly focused on the Europe, Middle East, and Africa. The service operates a single geostationary communications satellite, one is for backup and a third satellite is planned for launch in Q1 2007. The launch of the Far East and Australia service is planned for 2007. Image File history File links Thuraya_logo. ...
Image File history File links Thuraya_1120RentalKit400340. ...
Image File history File links Thuraya_1120RentalKit400340. ...
A satellite telephone, satellite phone, or satphone is a mobile phone that communicates directly with orbiting communications satellites. ...
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A geostationary orbit (abbreviated GEO) is a circular orbit in the Earths equatorial plane, any point on which revolves about the Earth in the same direction and with the same period as the Earths rotation. ...
U.S. military MILSTAR communications satellite A communications satellite (sometimes abbreviated to comsat) is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purposes of telecommunications. ...
The company is based in the UAE and provides service through authorized service providers. Its shareholders are a mixture of Middle Eastern and North African telcos (in which Etisalat is a major one) and investment companies [1]. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
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. ...
Northern Africa (UN subregion) geographic, including above North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent. ...
TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company A telephone company (or telco) provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications. ...
Etisalat logo Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, also known as Etisalat (former Emirtel), is the incumbent telecommunications carrier and internet service provider in the United Arab Emirates. ...
An investment company is a company whose main business is holding securities of other companies purely for investment purposes. ...
Thuraya provides the following satellite-based services: - Voice communications with handheld terminals (Hughes and Ascom) and maritime or land-based fixed terminals - Short message service - 9.6 kbit/s Data & Fax service - 144 kbit/s high-speed data services via notebook-sized Hughes terminal (ThurayaDSL) - built-in GPS capability - a number of value-added services, such as news, call back, voicemail, WAP, etc. SMS arrival notification on a Siemens phone Short Message Service (SMS) is a service available on most digital mobile phones (and other mobile devices, e. ...
A kilobit is a unit of information storage, abbreviated kbit or sometimes kb. ...
GPS satellite in orbit, image courtesy NASA The Global Positioning System, usually called GPS, is the only fully-functional satellite navigation system. ...
The current number of handheld subscribers is around 250,000 (March 2006). The subscriber growth has apparently slowed down during the last year, but Thuraya still made a net profit of US$80 million on revenues of US$323 million in 2005 (compared to just US$26 million profit in 2004). ISO 4217 Code USD User(s) the United States, the British Virgin Islands, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Panama, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the insular areas of the United States Inflation 3. ...
Thuraya handsets have a dual-mode feature that allows them to operate on the Thuraya satellite network and GSM 900 terrestrial mobile networks. The dual-mode feature of the handset is similar to the Telit (GSM/Satellite) and Qualcomm (CDMA/Satellite) handsets on the Globalstar system. Other satellite systems such as Iridium do not have dual-mode handsets. 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. ...
Globalstar is a low Earth orbit satellite constellation for telephone and low-speed data communications, similar to (and competing with) the Iridium satellite system. ...
An Iridium phone (without the aerial) The Iridium satellite constellation is a system of 66 active communication satellites and spares around the Earth. ...
Roaming agreements have been concluded with 201 GSM networks worldwide (Feb 2006). Some 360,000 Thuraya handsets have been put in service since launch in 2001. This is a list of mobile phone network operating companies. ...
The former Thuraya provided phones from two vendors, Ascom and HughesNetworks. Neither still manufacture handsets. Ascom 21 and Hughes phone models HNS 7100 and HNS 7101 are no longer in production, but still available in the second hand and surplus market. The new generation of Thuraya handsets (SO-2510 and SG-2520) should be released in September-October 2006. The premium SG-2520 handset will support Thuraya and GSM 900/1800/1900 networks, will be GPRS-capable and will run on a Windows-based operating system. It will be the first satellite phone with color display and built-in camera.
The company gained worldwide prominence when it was reported that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and members of his terrorist network used Thurayas, as they are harder to pinpoint the location of than regular cell phones.[2] Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. ...
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Also, an article in a local US paper says that reporters traveling with forward units in Iraq have been told not to use Thruaya phones. The theory is that the phones have integrated GPS and transmit their locations. This info is not to be easily accessible, as there are privacy issues. How this info would be accessed and passed on to the US military for geolocating the phones is a tough one. The phone may also use signals from the Thuraya satellite itself to locate the phone - and may not use the US GPS system. Later, Thuraya reaffirmed the security of Thuraya satellite phone system. [3]
Thuraya's country code is +88216.
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See also [edit] Globalstar is a low Earth orbit satellite constellation for telephone and low-speed data communications, similar to (and competing with) the Iridium satellite system. ...
An Iridium phone (without the aerial) The Iridium satellite constellation is a system of 66 active communication satellites and spares around the Earth. ...
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