An independent Telit division in Rome for satellite products
Interview with the Director, eng. Enrico Salvatori
An independent division for satellite products at the heart
of Italy's space industry, with activities and responsibilities that cover the full spectrum. The Satellite User Terminal Division has been operational in Rome since last May, and is organising itself to reach the objectives established by its parent company, Telit: market analysis, definition of the range of products, research and development activities, building of prototypes and production control.
"The Satellite User Terminal Division" - states its Director, ing. Enrico Salvatori, who joined Telit after valuable experience at Selenia Spazio, Alenia Spazio and Elsacom - "will be a copy of the Trieste base once its organisation has been completed, as it will have at its disposal a well-equipped research and development laboratory, a marketing and sales section, an area devoted to the definition of products and another to logistics".
Naturally, the greatest importance will be attributed to research and development, and the creation of the laboratory will require a start-up period during which collaboration with Telit's Technical Department in Trieste will be particularly intense.
"Once fully up and running" - stresses Salvatori, recalling the importance of its being independent and thus responsible for its own activities - "it will have 30-40 employees and will always maintain close links with the rest of the company, especially as regards the Globalstar project, which is now almost complete". As far as its specific activities are concerned, the Satellite User Terminal Division will develop three areas: satellite telephony, messaging&positioning, multimedia satellite services.
"The satellite telephony department will concentrate primarily upon second-generation S-UMTS standard terminals which will be on the market from 2002-2003" - explains Enrico Salvatori. "The messaging&positioning department will be responsible for low-capacity data communications systems with localization facilities: in particular, it will work on the launch of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS2) which should take place between 2005 and 2007, with the activation of the European Galileo system (the European GPS-type system, GPS still being under the control of the US Department of Defense). The multimedia satellite department will develop products able to transmit data up to 2 megabytes in size (thanks to the positioning of a network of extremely high frequency geostationary satellites), to be used in special work situations".
As far as products are concerned, the Division will immediately tackle the commercialization of the Dual Mode Satellite / GSM 900 (Telit SAT 550) terminal, of the
second-generation terminal (Telit SAT 600) upon which the company is already working with a view to putting it on the market in the first quarter of 2000, and on the Orbcomm terminal (see article alongside). "The commercialization of the SAT 550" - declares Enrico Salvatori, stressing that the product is aimed at a niche market (the systems's capacity is currently limited to 60,000 sets worldwide) - "will involve a first phase aimed at the vertical market and dedicated to specific applications (navy, army, police forces, etc.), and a second phase aimed at the final user".
In this important area, Telit enjoys an advantage on other producers who are too big to be interested in small numbers, and it can thus offer a satellite terminal of equal technological level but at a probable lower cost.
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