Satgen514 Sat MobilePhone Hangup by GM4IHJ (BID SGEN514) 1999-01-30 Six months ago, the Iridium consortium led by Motorola had done a superb job of getting its low earth orbit fleet of 68+ satellites , correctly spaced , in orbit around the earth. But since then very little has been heard of them . Several governments, upset by the satellites downlinks potential to interfere with radio astronomy had delayed issuing ground station licenses. This has resulted in the case of the UK, in a situation whereby a test from the top of a Scottish mountain putting a call through to the UK Weather Service had to follow an odd route. The signal first went up to a passing satellite, then it had to find a route to Germany either directly if in range or, indirectly via daisy chaining through another satellite further to the east. Once downlink was established to the German Ground Station , the call was routed over landlines across 3 frontier and the English Channel to the Weather Service provider. The return from the weather service had then to take the 400 mile plus landline trip back to Germany , then find a satellite single or multiple connection back to the Scottish mountain peak . Hopefully using the same satellites for the duration of the call , or having to switch seamlessly to new satellites as the call progressed. Here in UK the Motorola partner is Orange. They say they are still testing the system. They have not sold any handsets and will not do so until they are satified they can achieve reasonable performance. They hope to report better results in February 99. But problems they are encountering in Britain are also being reported from Europe , where comments rang from " poor distorted reception with syllables being missed as words are broken up " , to , " difficulty getting satellite access and, connections being lost before calls are completed". Europeans suggest that the onboard software needs amendment before successful daisy chaining and call completion will become normal. It has long been realised that Iridium is the most complex of the low earth orbit satellite system proposed . So it is perhaps no surprise that there are problems. Only time will tell whether the present situation is one of teething troubles soon resolved, or something much more serious. Meanwhile time is not on Iridium's side. Costing 6 billion dollars,the systems life expectancy is only 5 or 6 years before satellites must be replaced. So the recent six months hiatus represents half a billion dollars of capital spending with no obvious sign of any immediate return. In addition several countries are insisting that they will not license Iridium in its present form after 2005, unless the next set of hardware features major changes of frequency and, modulation modes. So something must change soon, if Iridium is to have a long term future. Meanwhile coming up rapidly behind is Globalstar. A simpler system which may just work from day one. But given the lack of enthusiasm currently being shown in Europe for any of these satellite systems. It may be a few years yet before a sat mobile phone becomes as familiar a Christmas present, as has, the ubiquitous terrestrial mobile phone.