Thread--I did something I normally do not do, and contacted the marketing side. I emailed the contact at the Martel site, with the hope I would get a better understanding of how their coverage would work. I am impressed by the speed of and completeness of the response:
My email:
I was a little surprised, looking at the English language portion of
your site, at the "Service Area" described in the map on this page:
martel.is
I had understood that for the Globalstar phone to work, you must be
within 1,500 miles of a gateway. I understand that you will have a
gateway in Iceland. Your map seems to imply that you will be able to
provide coverage all the way across the Atlantic, down to about 30
degrees north latitude. Please advise, was my understanding wrong, or
does the map overstate the "coverage" area?
Best Regards and Thanks in Advance,
John Stichnoth
PS--I like the updated site. Wish I could read the Icelandic!
And the Reply:
Mr. Stichnoth.
Thank you for your interest in our web page.
As indicated, our Globalstar service area
is indeed as shown by the map, Greenland, Iceland
The Faroe Islands, and all the N-Atlantic ocean
from 32øN to 73øN (outside of other nations 200 mile limits).
This does not reflect immediate service zone from day one
but should rather be used as a reference to what Globalstar
partner is responsible for the service in each part of the world.
It is true that the "average" coverage a gateway can handle
is around 1500nm, but the real coverage can look much different.
Gateways located at 52øN and 52øS do provide more coverage than
gateways located in 10ø, calculated gateway reach always counts
on 100% quality of service situations, and handset communication
(elevation) angel limited to 10ø.
The calculation on link budgets, QoS, and coverage are extremely
complex for this system because of variable parameters such as
vocoder rates, multi-path satellite communications
the gateway coverage difference based on location (mentioned above)
and more.
But so far the simulation tools designed by Globalstar engineers
have proved to be surprisingly accurate, just like the system itself.
We expect the coverage and quality of service on the N-Atlantic ocean
to be fairly good using only 2 gateways located in France and Canada.
The exact situation is still under verification testing.
This we know, Greenland will not have an useful coverage on the high
glacier plateau, coverage mainly possible on the west-coast end
on fishing grounds between the east-coast and Iceland.
This initial configuration still provides good service to almost all
in need of satellite telecommunication.
When traffic increases and the business allows the installation of the
third gateway (in Iceland)Globalstar will then have multiple gateway service
with near 100% coverage and QoS in all the area indicated by our web map.
That means Globalstar will have the most robust an capable satellite system
available to seafarers and general aviation alike across the N-Atlantic.
We hope this explained our situation.
Again, thank you for you interest and we welcome any comments or
complaints to improve our business.
Best Regards,
Globalstar Atlantic
Naustafjara
640 Husavik
Iceland |
