Satellite Telephone

Things you should know about satellite phones

Satellite phones use incredible technology to bring us global coverage at incredibly low cost - However, there are a few basic laws of physics which they cannot break...

Satellite Phones need a clear line-of-sight view of the satellite.

For Iridium, this means the phone (or at least the phone's antenna) must be outside with a reasonably unobstructed view of most of the sky. Iridium phones use a non-directional antenna - you don't have to point it in any particular direction.

For Inmarsat, which uses geostationary satellites, the phone's antenna must actually point directly at the satellite with an unobstructed view. The antenna must be outside. The set up procedure is very simple and can be accomplished in seconds with ease.

Both types of satellite phone can be supplied with long antenna cable extentions to allow the hand set to be operated inside a building, and for vehicle or maritime use, the Inmarsat phone can be supplied with an optional automatic antenna, which points itself towards the satellite.

Bandwidth Limited

Satellite phones share the limited resources of the satellite amongst users in many different countries. The engineers have developed amazing systems that allow narrow-band carriers to be used to carry our voice signals. However, this technology is not capable of delivering high bandwidth data - Internet access is certainly possible, but it is slow. For higher bandwidth options, a large antenna version of the Inmarsat system is available - Inmarsat M4. Also see our Satellite Broadband option which uses DVB-RCS technology.

Satellite phone options