Reliable Connections Broaden Demand For Satellite Phones

[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sarmad Ali sarmad.ali@wsj.com]
What a change a Category 4 hurricane makes. A few years ago, demand for satellite phones was so tepid that the two largest U.S. manufacturers, Iridium and Globalstar LP, were forced to seek bankruptcy-court protection. But today satellite phones are among the hottest products in the telecom industry. Manufacturers have been deluged with orders since Hurricane Katrina revealed the weaknesses in the country's land-line and cellphone systems. Demand for the phones used to be limited mostly to government agencies, emergency workers and the U.S. military. In fact, the military has been one of the key drivers. Today, the Defense Department has about 25,000 satellite phones, according to an Iridium spokeswoman. But now demand is also coming from a broad range of businesses, nonprofits and individuals. Satellite-phone companies say they are getting orders from banks, construction companies, insurance companies and even hotels. Satellite phones are among the most reliable forms of communications in a disaster. Cellphone service is vulnerable to downed towers and the loss of commercial power. While phone companies have built land-line networks with backup power, Katrina demonstrated how vulnerable they are to flooding, wind damage and the dependence of backup power sources on constant fuel deliveries. Even some fire- and police-department systems that were built to withstand hurricanes succumbed to Katrina's fury. Satellite service is more durable because handsets send signals directly to satellites, which beam them back into the telephone network. They work in most weather conditions on batteries that can keep some units operating as long as 30 hours of standby time, depending on usage. Iridium has 66 satellites orbiting the earth, and Globalstar has 48, so it's almost always possible to get a signal as long as the phone's antenna is unobstructed by a structure or ground cover.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113098729897487086.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
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