Satellite cell phones: About adecade ago, some companies were proud to announce their projects to replaceconventional mobile phones with handsets transmitting calls off satellitesorbiting Earth. They have names, such as Iridium, Teledesic, and few others.They unlikely failed and nobody does remember of them now. Iridium, however,had placed about 66 satellites on an Earth orbit, and all of these satellitesare yet available for use. KDDI, from Japan, is one of the first to try to revive the Iridiumphone service. Do they believe to address a mass market? Surely not. With asatellite phone at $ 1800 and $1 per minute, it should only be a niche marketservice. Experts wonder, however, how well consumers will take to the satellitephone service. With current extensive mobile network coverage, satellite phonewill be marketed to fill whatever gaps exist in coverage areas. Some othercompanies are planning to launch their own satellites and target consumers withhybrid phones that can use either satellites or conventional cellular networks.The most recent example is TerreStar Networks, which want to cover North ofAmerica. Space Systems/Loral will build and launch the satellite that willbegin operation in 2008. Such hybrid communications services -- satellite andcellular -- have been used in Asia for some time now (i.e. Asian service ACSIS). A good and cheaperalternative to satellite should be very large balloons or planes in the upperatmosphere. Trials have been made, but without any real commercial launch up tonow. GlobeTel has announced such an initiative (based on stratospheric balloonsor stratellite), GPS-positioned at 20km altitude, and offering voice, internetand video services.
