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Archive for the 'Satellite Phones' Category

Satphones Get Qualcomm Cell Roaming Chips

Posted by Sam Churchill on September 22nd, 2008

Satellite phone operators Mobile Satellite Ventures and ICO jointly announced today an agreement with Qualcomm to enable mobile devices to roam from traditional cellular service to satellite connections.
Under the agreement, Qualcomm will integrate satellite and cellular communication technology in select multi-mode mobile baseband chips. As a result, for the first time ever, satellite connectivity [...]

Air Canada Gets Aircell

Posted by Sam Churchill on September 9th, 2008

Aircell, the provider of 800 MHz cellular towers that connect to aircraft in North America, announced today that Air Canada, Canada’s largest airline, will offer the Aircell mobile broadband service.
The Gogo wireless service will be available to passengers on trans-border flights and makes Air Canada the first Canadian airline to offer inflight Wi-Fi.
Under this [...]

NY Gives Tyco 45 days to Fix Network

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 29th, 2008

The New York State Office for Technology issued a letter of default to a unit of Tyco Electronics on Friday over a $2 billion contract to build an emergency communications network, giving the company’s M/A-COM Inc 45 days to fix “significant” problems, reports Reuters.

Tyco Electronics said it was disappointed in the move and has [...]

Plane Talking

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 25th, 2008

Andy Abramson of VoIP Watch has figured out how to make voice calls using the data-only Aircell service on American Airlines. They tried Flash Audio (which isn’t blocked).

And guess what? It worked.
Phweet. Yup, the unfunded brainchild of pals Stuart Henshall and Mr. Blog David Beckemeyer (who I consider one of the true great [...]

Inmarsat F3 Successfully Launched

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 19th, 2008

Inmarsat-4 (F3) - one of the biggest commercial satellites ever built - was successfully launched by a Russian Proton Breeze M rocket today. The F3 satellite, operated by Inmarsat, will complete the firm’s globe-spanning, 3-satellite broadband network. Each I-4 satellite can generate 19 wide beams and more than 200 spot beams using its giant unfurlable [...]

Satphone Terrestrial Repeaters: Uncertain

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 12th, 2008

TMF Associates, a Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) consulting firm, today released its analysis of the proposed Skyterra/Inmarsat merger, and an updated profile of Iridium.
Tim Farrar, author of the research, commented, “Doubts have grown over the last year about whether the re-use of MSS spectrum in terrestrial networks, referred to as Ancillary Terrestrial Components or ATC, [...]

TerreStar Roams with AT&T

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 1st, 2008

Satellite communications company TerreStar has signed a nationwide reciprocal roaming agreement with AT&T Wireless. It will allow the satellite phone company to allow roaming with it’s handheld devices. Financial terms and duration of the agreement were not disclosed.
TerreStar is developing a geosynchrounous satellite phone system with terrestrial repeaters. The company plans to target its service [...]

Skyterra/MSV Get $500M

Posted by Sam Churchill on July 25th, 2008

Harbinger Capital today offered to front Skyterra $500 million to launch two satellites, says GigaOm’s Stacey Higginbotham. The private equity firm is also planning to push for a deal to acquire Inmarsat, according to Higginbotham. Harbinger already owns 28.8 percent of Inmarsat’s stock.
Harbinger is apparently confident that the FCC will look favorably on [...]

Aircell: We Be 4G

Posted by Sam Churchill on July 16th, 2008

Aircell which delivers WiFi on airplanes, via its Gogo service, today announced its intention to base its airplane-to-ground link on Long Term Evolution (LTE).
Aircell uses an exclusive FCC frequency license to provide a cellular data channel to airplanes. It currently uses CDMA EVDO Rev A to deliver an effective data rate of more than [...]

Wildfire

Posted by Sam Churchill on July 14th, 2008

There’s a wildfire, Dr. Stone — Andromeda Strain
A remotely piloted aircraft carrying a NASA sensor flew over much of California earlier this week , gathering information that will be used to help fight more than 300 wildfires burning within the state.
NASA’s unmanned Ikhana aircraft, derived from a General Atomics Predator uses a sophisticated Autonomous [...]