SATELLITE PHONE NETWORKS WITH EMPHASIS ON

IRADIUM AND ODYSSEY

BY
Sanjeev Kumar
1. A communications satellite (sometimes abbreviated to comsat) is an
artificial satellite stationed in space for the purposes of telecommunications.
Modern communications satellites use a variety of orbits including geostationary
orbits, Molniya orbits, other elliptical orbits and low (polar and non-polar)
Earth orbits.
For fixed (point-to-point) services, communications satellites provide
a microwave radio relay technology complementary to that of submarine
communication cables. They are also used for mobile applications such as
communications to ships, vehicles, planes and hand-held terminals, and for TV
and radio broadcasting, for which application of other technologies, such as
cable, is impractical or impossible .

GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE
2. A satellite in a geostationary orbit appears to be in a fixed position to an
earth-based observer. A geostationary satellite revolves around the earth at a
constant speed once per day over the equator.
The geostationary orbit is useful for communications applications because
ground based antennas, which must be directed toward the satellite, can operate
effectively without the need for expensive equipment to track the satellite’s
motion. Especially for applications that require a large number of ground
antennas (such as direct TV distribution), the savings in ground equipment can
more than justify the extra cost and onboard complexity of lifting a satellite into
the relatively high geostationary orbit.
The concept of the geostationary communications satellite was first proposed
by Arthur C. Clarke, building on work by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and on the
1929 work by Herman Potočnik (writing as Herman Noordung) Das Problem der
Befahrung des Weltraums - der Raketen-motor. In October 1945Clarke published
an article titled “Extra-terrestrial Relays” in the British magazine Wireless World.
The article described the fundamentals behind the deployment of artificial
satellites in geostationary orbits for the purpose of relaying radio signals. Thus
Arthur C. Clarke is often quoted as being theinventor of the communications
satellite.
The first truly geostationary satellite launched in orbit was the Syncom 3,
launched on August 19, 1964. It was placed in orbit at 180° east longitude, over
the International Date Line. It was used that same year to relay experimental
television coverage on the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan to the United
States, the first television transmission sent over the Pacific Ocean.
Shortly after Syncom 3, Intelsat I, aka Early Bird, was launched on April
6, 1965 and placed in orbit at 28° west longitude. It was the first geostationary
satellite for telecommunications over the Atlantic Ocean.
On November 9, 1972, North America's first geostationary satellite serving the
continent, Anik A1, was launched by Telesat Canada, with the United
States following suit with the launch ofWestar 1 by Western Union on April
13, 1974.
On December 19, 1974, the first geostationary communications satellite in the
world to be three-axis stabilized was launched: the Franco-German Symphonie.
After the launchings of Telstar, Syncom 3, Early Bird, Anik A1, and Westar 1,
RCA Americom (later GE Americom, now SES Americom) launched Satcom 1 in
1975. It was Satcom 1 that was instrumental in helping early cable TV channels
such as WTBS (now TBS Superstation), HBO, CBN (now ABC Family),
and The Weather Channel become successful, because these channels distributed
their programming to all of the local cable TV headends using the satellite.
Additionally, it was the first satellite used by broadcast television networks in the
United States, like ABC, NBC, and CBS, to distribute their programming their
local affiliate stations. Satcom 1 was so widely used because it had twice the
communications capacity of the competing Westar 1 in America
(24 transponders as opposed to the 12 of Westar 1), resulting in lower
transponder-usage costs. Satellites in later decades tended to have even higher
transponder numbers.
By 2000 Hughes Space and Communications (now Boeing Satellite Development
Center) had built nearly 40 percent of the more than one hundred satellites in
service worldwide. Other major satellite manufacturers include Space
Systems/Loral, Lockheed Martin (owns former RCA Astro Electronics/GE Astro
Space business), Northrop Grumman, Alcatel Space, nowThales Alenia Space,
with the Spacebus series, and EADS Astrium..
LOW Earth Orbit
3. A Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is generally defined as an orbit within
the locus extending from the Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km. Given
the rapid orbital decay of objects below approximately 200 km, the commonly
accepted definition for LEO is between 160 - 2000 km (100 - 1240 miles) above
the Earth's surface.
With the exception of the lunar flights of the Apollo program, and the sub-
orbital flights of the Mercury program and the X-15 and Space ShipOne rocket
planes, all human spaceflights have been in LEO, including all Space
Shuttle and space station missions. The altitude record for a human spaceflight in
LEO was Gemini 11 with an apogee of 1374.1 km.
Objects in LEO encounter atmospheric drag in the form of gases in
the thermosphere (approximately 80-500 km up) or exosphere (approximately
500 km and up), depending on orbit height. LEO is an orbit around Earth
between the atmosphere and below the inner Van Allen radiation belt. The
altitude is usually not less than 300 km because that would be impractical due to
the larger atmospheric drag.
Equatorial Low Earth Orbits (ELEO) are a subset of LEO. These orbits, with low
inclination to the Equator, allow rapid revisit times and have the lowestdelta-
v requirement of any orbit. Orbits with a high inclination angle are usually
called polar orbits.
Higher orbits include medium Earth orbit (MEO), sometimes called intermediate
circular orbit (ICO), and further above, Geostationary orbit (GEO). Orbits higher
than low orbit can lead to earlier failure of electronic components due to intense
radiation and charge accumulation
The International Space Station is in a LEO that varies from 319.6 km (199 mi)
to 346.9 km (216 mi) above the Earth's surface.[3]
While a majority of artificial satellites are placed in LEO, where they travel at
about 27,400 km/h (8 km/s), making one complete revolution around the Earth in
about 90 minutes, many communication satellites require geostationary orbits,
and move at the same angular velocity as the Earth. Since it requires less energy
to place a satellite into a LEO and the LEO satellite needs less powerful
amplifiers for successful transmission, LEO is still used for many communication
applications. Because these LEO orbits are not geostationary, a network (or
"constellation") of satellites is required to provide continuous coverage. Lower
orbits also aid remote sensing satellites because of the added detail that can be
gained. Remote sensing satellites can also take advantage of sun-synchronous
LEO orbits at an altitude of about 800 km (500 mi) and near polar
inclination. ENVISAT is one example of an Earth observation satellite that makes
use of this particular type of LEO.
Although the Earth's pull due to gravity in LEO is not much less than on the
surface of the Earth, people and objects in orbit experience weightlessnessdue to
the effects of freefall.
Atmospheric and gravity drag associated with launch typically add 1,500-2,000
m/s to the (delta-V) required to reach normal LEO orbital velocity of around
7,800 m/s (17,448 mph) .
4. Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), sometimes called Intermediate Circular Orbit
(ICO), is the region of space around the Earth above low Earth
orbit(2,000 kilometres (1,243 mi)) and below geostationary
orbit (35,786 kilometres (22,236 mi)).
The most common use for satellites in this region is for navigation, such as
the GPS (20,200 kilometres (12,552 mi)), Glonass (19,100 kilometres
(11,868 mi)) and Galileo (23,222 kilometres (14,429 mi)) constellations.
Communications satellites that cover the North and South Pole are also put in
MEO.
The orbital periods of MEO satellites range from about 2 to 24 hours. Telstar,
was one of the first and most famous experimental satellites, orbits in MEO.
5. Operating Basics of Satellite Phone Networks When the user initiates a
call on a satellite capable handset, the nearest satellite picks up the call and
authenticates the users through the nearest gateway on the earth. If the
destination phone is part of the public switched telephone network (PSTN),
the call is routed to the nearest gateway and consecutive PSTN. If the
destination phone is another satellite handset, the call routing occurs
through satellites only, which increases transmission efficiency and quality.

6. Iridium’s Network The Iridium satellite system uses 66 LEO

satellites that orbit 780 km (about 485 miles) above the earth's surface, to
transmit signals. Each satellite cost $62 million, weighs about 1500 pounds, and
revolves around the earth every 100 minutes. The satellites cast 48 beams onto
the surface of the earth, covering a circular area with
a diameter of 2700 miles. Iridium transmits data between phones, satellites, and
traditional communication networks. Calls are routed
from one beam to the next or one satellite to another when
the satellite moves out of the range of the user. The service link between phone
and satellites operates in Lband frequency at1-2 GHz.
Iridium relies on circuit and packet switching to manage voice and data
transmissions between phones and satellites. Circuit switching sets up a dedicated
connection for the duration of each voice transmission i.e., a phone call. By using
circuit switching for phone calls, Iridium ensures that users will not experience
transmission interruptions due to dropped or degraded signals. Packet switching
breaks down data into smaller units called packets and sends them over a shared
connection. By
using packet switching, the Iridium system efficiently
uses bandwidth to allow more concurrent users to transmit
data. Iridium uses gateways to manage communication between its satellite
network and more conventional telecommunications systems. Gateways are
points that a signal may enter or leave a network. Iridium
currently maintains 12 gateways, 2 in North America, 7 in Asia, and 1 each in
Europe, Africa, and South America. Communication among satellites and
gateways uses Kaband frequency at a rate of 19.4 – 29.3 GHz.
SATELLITE PHONE SERVICE INDUSTRY
7. Following Iridium, several companies attempted to enter the satellite
phone marketplace. However, due to a lack of financial support, Iridium’s rivals
have not successfully implemented global satellite phone networks
Odyssey Worldwide Services Odyssey Worldwide Services planned on
implementing MEO satellite system as a backbone of its service. Because a MEO
system required less maintenance, analysts believed Odyssey would yield
greater profits than Iridium’s LEO satellite system. However, despite the
financial backing of TRW and Teleglobe, Odyssey lacked sufficient resources to
complete the satellite system and merged with ICO
http://www.ico.com/press/releases/199712/971217.htm].
ICO Global Communications ICO’s founders envisioned a system that
combines the strengths of satellites and terrestrial network to deliver services.
ICO’s proposed system would have used MEO satellites to reduce maintenance
costs and simplify transmitting signals. MEO satellites operate at higher altitude
which leads to a longer lifespan than LEO satellites. Also, because they can cover
larger areas, MEO satellites switch signals fewer times to span the globe than a
LEO-based satellite network. Due to financial difficulties, ICO filed for
bankruptcy in August, 1999. In 2000, Craig McGaw, founder of Nextel, raised
1.2 billion dollars to lead ICO out of bankruptcy. In a step forward, ICO launched
its first satellite in 2001.However, despite the infusion of capital and successful
satellite launch, ICO has not implemented an operational .
Teledisc Funded by Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, and Craig McGaw,
Teledisc announced it would build a network of 840 LEO satellites to offer
consumers telephone and Internet services. Perhaps due to its high profile
supporters, Teledisc successfully persuaded the United Nations and United States
to dedicate a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum for their service. After
Iridium and ICO filed for bankruptcy in 1999, was unable to raise sufficient
capital to fund the network. As a result, Teledisc failed to launch a single satellite.
In 2002, Teledisc laid off its last ten employees and went out of
business.
Globalstar Globalstar was formed in 1991 by Loral Space & Communications
and Qualcomm. With support from the United States and Russian space
programs, Globalstar quickly built a limited LEO satellite network. In 1999,
Globalstar began delivering services in more than 100 countries. By November
2000, Globalstar had sold only 21,300 out of its stockpile of 143000 phones [13].
When examining Globastar’s failure to win subscribers, analysts suggest that
consumers didn’t like limited service, bulky phones, and high per-minute
charges. Globalstar filing for Chapter 11 US bankruptcy protection during
February 2002.

8. Conclusion Despite a history of bankruptcy and failures, satellite

telephone companies continue to operate. To survive, companies have been
reorganized or bought out by investors. For example, although Iridium’s satellite
system $5 billion to develop, Dan Colussy acquired Iridium assets for about $25
million at a liquidation sale. Freed of massive debt, satellite phone companies
have been able to lower costs. Rather than $7 dollars a minute, Iridium has
slashed charges $1.50 per minute of airtime. Despite lower costs, satellite phones
may not appeal to broader consumer markets. Satellite telephones cost from
$1995 to $9295. When compared to modern cell phones, satellite telephones are
bulky and posses fewer auxiliary functions. In lieu of broader consumer markets,
satellite phone companies continue to market their services to the industries such
as oil exploration and have directed their attention to government agencies such
as the U.S. Department of Defense. Iridium recently renewed a contract with the
Pentagon to serve 20,000 U.S. Defense Department workers. The usefulness and
ubiquitous access of satellite phone services was demonstrated to TV viewers all
over the world in the Iraqi war. Despite new contract and increased public
awareness of its services, Iridium has a long way to go to meet investors’
expectations. Will the future of Iridium Satellite be bright as analysts predicted?