Can GSM/Satellite Hybrid Phones Go Mainstream?
In two months, TerreStar is expected to shoot a massive commercial satellite into space, some 22,000 miles above Planet Earth. Once there, the device will lay out an "umbrella of gold mesh" that measures 60 feet across and aims directly at the United States. This antenna net will provide sat phone service to those using it in North America, but obviously it won't do you any good if trying to communicate from an African jungle, an Asian desert or a Dutch flower field.
SkyTerra is expected to follow suit with two birds that are even larger, with the duo slated to cost the company around $1.2 billion to launch. Unlike past attempts, we're told that this new hardware will be designed to work with so-called hybrid phones that operate on traditional cell towers (GSM or CDMA, as with current cellphones on AT&T, Verizon, etc.) and satellite service. This capability means that users can safely make calls on normal cell towers while in covered areas, but sat signal can be fetched if users stray too far from the beaten path.
Still, the phones are expected to cost just under $1,000 each, and there's little to no chance that they'll ever end up in retail stores of traditional cellphone operators. On top of all that, sat calls are expected to run customers around $1 per minute, making it outrageously expensive for the average joe. In fact, unless that call was mission critical, we'd wager that the user could either wait until they found a landline or just drive a few miles towards town in order to fetch a single bar of cell signal. Finally, traditional cell service is now much, much more widely available compared to even a decade ago. In fact, it's tough to find too many wide open spaces that can't be reached at least partially by a CDMA or GSM phone. We don't doubt that there's a niche market willing to splurge on a GSM / satellite hybrid phone, but we can't ever see this thing going anywhere close to mainstream.
Comments
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Niche market huh.... you might want to rethink that. For those of you that dot get outside the concrete jungles of the cities/suburbs that you live in, sure a sat phone doesnt make much sense. The govt has their own sat stuff that they use im sure, but for the commercial and businesses that operate where there are limited to no cell signals, this is well worth it, and as always prices will drop once more people start buying it. You can bet that once they get this stuff going and get enough sat's in space, all the port authorities, oil rigs, off shore anything, will be using them. For companies that operate in rural areas where cell signals are sporadic this will be a great thing to have. Sure everyday people will likely not get one of these off the bat for personal use, but sat tech is alot better and more advanced than these cell towers. Heck cell service drops out on the southern half of the US when a hurricane is coming in as everyone is using them to communicate and they over load the towers. Sat phones have been around longer than the cell phone and their tech is proven. Give these guys a chance and you will likely see a broad change of the landscape with a sat vs cell war in the next 5-7 years. |
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I wish they would take over. Get rid of those ugly towers all over the place. IDK if anyone watches the twit podcasts, but they had one with Roz Savage. She is rowing the Pacific Ocean and the sat phone she used had great quality. |
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