Satgen 582  SatPhone Update  by GM4IHJ   (BID SGEN582)  2000-05-20

With the collapse of the Iridium satellite mobile phone venture, an
uneasy calm is evident in the commercial low earth orbit satellite
arena. The Iridium satellites are to be deorbited into the Pacific
Ocean. Although this begs several questions. Not least amongst these
being the fact that 12 of them are known to be non operational, and
several of them did not even get into their intended orbit. So it is
by no means clear that, they will deorbit on command.

Competitors Globalstar now have their full complement of satellites ,
in 52 degree inclination orbits , together with 3 "in space " spares.
An interim service was introduced in October 99 , for Mexico and
Brazil. Which locations may at first seem a little odd from a "
customer numbers " point of view. But this is consistent with the fact
that Globalstar was conceived from the start as a service to rural
communities, out with the reach of cities and towns, served by land
line exchanges, networks or terestrial mobile phone coverage. Indeed a
typical Globalstar village terminal is completely self supporting.
Being a booth with a solar panel power supply roof, sheltering a pay
phone , with uplink and downlink capability.

In addition , Globalstar is far less likely than Iridium to cause 
interference to Radio Astronomy , because it uses a better choice of
downlink frequencies. So unlike Iridium , there should be little
trouble getting licenses for the necessary ground stations ,needed in
order to connect Globalstar users to phones on domestic/commercial
terrestrial exchanges or, terrestrial mobile phone networks.

Less fortunate than Globalstar and several years behind it. ICO Global
services , having narrowly survived backruptcy, courtesy of a recent
1.2 billion dollar injection of capital from an investment group led
by the McCaw company. Suffered the indignity of a first unit
launch failure. When ICO F1, the first of a planned fleet of 12
satellites in 45 degree inclination , 10,390 km circular orbits, was
the victim of a second stage Zenith 3SL failure. 

The planned operational date of the ICO fleet is 2002. At least by
that time it should be clear whether ICO or Globalstar or both will be
viable. But Iridiums failure has certainly dented the enthusiasm for
satellite LEO mobile phone networks, in some quarters. With some
Iridium apologist blaming its failure on the unexpected popularity of
terrestrial mobile phone networks , which they say have taken up most
of the customer base that Iridium was expected to acquire. A point
which if confirmed in the next year or two , spells trouble for all
would be operators in this field.

Meanwhile, in the somewhat simpler field of store and forward low
earth orbit data and message systems. The prospects look far less
gloomy. Encouraged perhaps by Orbcoms success , several groups propose
to enter this field. Notable amongst these being the UKs Surrey
Satellite Technology, with a proposal for LEO sats capable of taking
over the job of the man who comes to read the meters recording your
gas and electricity usage.