A satellite phone is nothing more than a type of cell phone that, unlike any conventional mobile phone, provides service almost anywhere. Generally more expensive than cell phones, as they provide significant ability to receive and make phone calls anytime, anywhere, regardless of local cell phone service or geographic boundaries.
ID
A satellite phone connects to an orbiting satellite to achieve communication. This is different from a conventional mobile phone that connects to a local and terrestrial service tower. Although cell phone networks use satellites to achieve greater communication range, mobile phones do not dial directly to these satellites.
Characteristic
Several satellite phone networks use an interconnected network of satellites in geosynchronous orbit that allows the network to achieve global coverage with just three or four satellites. The other method of satellite phone communication is to place the satellites in low earth orbit. This, however, requires a larger number of satellites to achieve global coverage. However, they can be smaller to reduce launch costs.
effects
A satellite phone’s microwave transceiver provides notoriously poor service indoors. In this sense, its reliability and performance is worse than a mobile phone. Additionally, networks that rely on geosynchronous satellites often experience a transmission delay of more than a second. This is because the satellites are located about 23,000 miles in space. This means that each signal has to travel approximately 46,000 miles from one phone to another. Also, a satellite phone headset is more expensive than a mobile phone. In fact, both the phone and the service are priced much higher than conventional cell phones. Calling satellite phones from landlines or mobile phones is also very expensive, although this hardly costs the owner of the satellite phone anything. However, satellite phones should be the device of choice if you want reliable communication in remote areas where cell phone networks are weak.
Considerations
A satellite phone is usually assigned its own special country code. For example, Inmarsat phones are typically assigned country codes between 870 and 874, while Iridium phones use country codes 8816 and 8817.
History
The first satellite phone company in the world began its services in 1979, under the name of the International Mobile Satellite Organization, an international non-profit organization initiated by the United Nations. The service was started to provide a reliable channel of communication to the maritime community. From the beginning, the organization was baptized as Inmarsat, which became a private company from 1999.
Caveat
One notable problem with most satellite phones is that, unlike cell phones, their networks generally operate near their maximum capacity, even under normal circumstances. Networks generally do not have any extra capacity to accommodate more calls simultaneously. This means that any spike in call volume, as has been the case during major regional and international unrest, can cause a satellite phone network to collapse. However, technological advances are being made so that satellite phone networks can eliminate these problems.