What is a satellite phone?

A satellite phone is effectively a mobilephone which uses satellites for communication, rather than cell like standard mobile phones. There are three satellite phone networks that 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 where on Earth where you can't receive a satellite phone call over the Iridium network.

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.

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.