axxxr
Joined: Mar 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Londinium
PM, WWW
|
The clunky satellite phone is starting to make a comeback among travelers and workers in far-flung locations who are frustrated with the limits of cellphone coverage,reports the WSJ.
"Iridium -- one of the two major satellite-phone companies in the U.S., along with Globalstar LLC of San Jose, Calif.has seen its subscribers grow by 32,000 a year since its relaunch in April 2001 after it had to seek bankruptcy-court protection in 1999. It currently has slightly more than 100,000 subscribers.
"Though still larger than most cellphones, the design of satellite phones has improved. The original satellite phones had large antennas that had to be pointed in the direction of a satellite to properly function. And to compensate for their initial investment, some companies charged as much as about $5 a minute for the service.
Satellite phones also got a boost when a string of hurricanes hit the U.S. and several countries. Satellite phones, which operate through constellations of satellites that orbit the earth, are often the only means of communications that reliably work when natural disasters down landlines and cellular towers."
[addsig] |
Posted: 2004-11-17 14:28
