All,
Lightweight, satellite telephones will help users take a load
off
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Soon after Bravo Company of the 1st Marine
Regiment landed on Red Beach at Camp
Pendleton in the summer of 1997, I flattened
some tall grass with my boots and placed a small,
seven-pound gray case on the ground. Within a
few minutes, a news story was being relayed from the small satellite phone
to a geostationary Inmarsat satellite over the Pacific Ocean and down to The
San Diego Union-Tribune. No big story, just an experiment in high-tech
news gathering.
Not so long ago, reporters would have had to find a phone, a telex machine
or a telegraph office to send their dispatches. Television reporters needed a
satellite broadcast center to uplink their videotapes. Now, some reporters
and photographers are carrying lightweight, portable satellite phones that
operate in most parts of the world. Television broadcasts now can be sent
with less than 50 pounds of gear. For war correspondents, it may allow
stories to be filed directly in the heat of battle.
Last month, satellite phones got lighter -- one pound -- and easier to use
when a new satellite phone service called Iridium began limited service.
Using a constellation of 66 satellites orbiting the Earth, Iridium will allow
anyone with the proper phone to call from anywhere to anywhere. The
satellites also are providing some entertainment for space buffs. Because of
the large antennas, sunlight reflecting off the mirrors produces a flash that can
be seen on Earth. San Diegans are likely to be flashed by an Iridium satellite
by looking upward about 45 degrees above the northeastern horizon at 6:21
p.m. today.
While Iridium, largely owned by [ Motorola ] , will be the first of the
so-called low-earth orbit telecommunications satellite systems in operation,
other companies, including Qualcomm and [ Microsoft ] , are developing
satellite systems that will begin service in coming years.
Users of these new phones will be able to call while shivering at the North
Pole, sailing in the middle of the Atlantic or baking in the Sahara. Customers
will pay a sizable premium over existing long-distance rates to make the
satellite phone calls.
Journalists covering distant wars or venturing to remote locations or who
report from several countries are likely to get the new phones.
Yet the media are just a small segment of the market. People involved in
international business, the military, government agencies and disaster relief
groups are the anticipated major users.
"Our customers don't care if it's cellular, satellite, Pony Express or two tin
cups tied to a string," said James Walz, president of Iridium North America.
"They just want to make a call."
But satellite phones may have a drawback on the battlefield.
Military experts suggested that enemy forces might use radio
direction-finding equipment to zero in artillery or bombs on the media.
American reporters using satellite phones in Chechnya reported having
mortar barrages fired at their hotels soon after they made satellite calls.
Sometimes, it might be better to use tin cups and string.
(Copyright 1998)
_____via IntellX_____
Publication Date: October 27, 1998
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