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To: GraceZ who wrote (58230)	1/16/2001 2:57:37 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

There I go talking like a lawyer again. Sorry, I meant that I think the fact that Iridium has a contract with the Pentagon is significant. I've been reading arguments about which is better, Iridium or Globalstar since 1998 - I have no way of knowing who's right, but the fact that the Pentagon contracted with Iridium, not Globalstar, suggests to me that their telecommunications experts prefer Iridium. The reason, if you don't mind my getting into the details, is that the Pentagon owns its own gateway (that's the terrestrial facility with the satellite dish or dishes and links to terrestrial phone equipment and so forth) - so can control the security of the communications. Iridium's satellites send communications around the world satellite to satellite and then down to (in this case) the Pentagon gateway. Satellite communication is line of sight microwave - either the satellites have to be within the line of sight of other satellites, which is how Iridium operates, or else communicate down to a gateway and then back up, in a zig-zag, which is how Globalstar operates. Parenthetically, I think it's probably a misnomer to say "Pentagon," it's more likely than not some secret organization like the NSA, I surmise.