Experiences with G* at Telecom99 (via Yahoo GSTRF thread)
by: mgrant0 15302 of 15309
Posted in multiple parts because this is a bit long...
Part 1
I was at Telecom99 last week and I had the opportunity to use Iridium, Globalstar and Inmarsat. In short, I was not impressed with either Globalstar or Iridium.
I was expecting the phones to look exactly like GSM phones. They're not! All the phones are huge and have towering antennas which must be extended above your head in order to work. Furthermore, you really need to be outside in the open.
The first thing I noticed on G* and Iridium was that the ringing tone of my home phone was distinctly different as if it was doppler shifted. Most of the connections I had were usuable though I cannot say it was perfectly clear all the time. What was noticeable was the delay which surprised me. It wasn't quite as severe as a geostationary call but definitely noticeable.
I then proceeded to try out the 2 other phones that were floating around for G*, all of them were just as bad. The call dropped at least once while standing still. I write that off to an incomplete constellation though.
Later in the day, I called a friend of mine in Boston. The connection was so doppler shifted that he refused to believe who he was talking to!
It seemed to take an eternity for calls to go through and even then, only about half my calls went through the first time. It has to be said that G* calls completed in about 15-30 seconds as opposed to the 30-60-never on Iridium.
I had just terrible problems with Iridium. I had the best luck with the older Motorola phone as opposed to their newer 9505. The worst was the Kyocera phone which I never managed to make a single call on. It always took several tries to get any of my Iridium calls to go through.
For both systems, the phones are quite large, even the newest Motorola is nothing you would hang on your belt. The phones can receive calls but not unless the antenna is fully extended and vertical in an unobstructed view of the sky. All the portable satellite phones seem to have this penis shaped antenna that towers above your head. Essentially, it's totally impractical to use it to receive calls, you'll need a pager instead.
Iridium is available everywhere on the planet. It will switch a call from one satellite to another then eventually down to a ground station. Globalstar is only available in certain places where the satellite can see a ground station, it does not switch between satellites, only up and then down again. Globalstar's coverage is ok if you're on land but they don't cover much of the ocean at all.
Iridium is a fatally flawed system. All their satellites are in polar orbits, 11 satellites in each of 6 planes, 66 in total. All the satellites cross at the poles. Around the equator, there is a 60 degree separation. The system will not hand off a call from a satellite in plane 6 to plane 1 and visa versa. What all this means is that the coverage is more sparse near the equator and if the "seam" between planes 1 and 6 is overhead, your call will drop. One of the guys at the Iridium booth told me if you make a call from Geneva when the seam is overhead, the call will wrap entirely around the planet and then hit the earth station in England!!! Also, note the concentration of satellites around the poles...one can only imagine why their service is concentrated there, there can't be such a great need for inuit dog sleders using their system! When I pointed this out to the sales guy, he replied that neither Inmarsat nor G* cover the poles.
Posted: 10/22/1999 10:19 am EDT as a reply to: Msg 15294 by bloodhound4u
Experiences with G* at Telecom99
by: mgrant0 15303 of 15309
Part 2
Globalstar was engaging in predatory practices at Telecom99, they set up a temporary stand out side a vehicle right outside the Iridium booth! People would come out of the Iridium booth and they would immediately thrust a Globalstar phone into their hand to try! I found the Iridium people quite depressed and in despair. The Globalstar people where much happier and cheerful. The writing seems to be on the wall for Iridium.
Given the dropped calls, clunky telephones, bad voice quality and high prices (around $2/min), I think I'll wait until the technology matures a bit before buying one of these phones.
Just for fun, I also test drove Inmarsat. Inmarsat is GEO based. Their system has been fully functional for years. They don't have hand-held telephones but they do have briefcase models, most notably the mini-M which I had the pleasure to use. The call was crystal clear, went through in seconds and the delay was was actually less noticeable than the LEO systems! The cost of an Inmarsat call is roughly $2/min. Inmarsat just came out with there ISDN product that allows the user a 64kb channel. Prices at $6/min, it's a little out of range for most hobbyists.
I asked G* about data and was told it was a couple years off and it would be relatively slow compared with say Skybridge.
I considered buying some GSTRF stock a few weeks ago but now I'm very put off. I don't see the service and phones improving to the point so rapidly that the service will be come as useful as a terrestrial cellular phone anytime in the near future. I just don't see how companies like G* and Iridium are going to attract sufficient customers even to break even. The lack of high speed data service even more limits the utility of these services. Also, ask yourself, with Iridium more or less working, why don't we see people flocking to them for their services?
About me: I am a programmer for a computer manufacturer. I have nothing to do with any of the companies mentioned above. My interest in playing with these services was as a potential investor and a potential customer. The experiences and opinions are mine alone.
Posted: 10/22/1999 10:20 am EDT as a reply to: Msg 15302 by mgrant0
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