Re:The 5.2 billion dollar mistake.
by metageek on Monday November 01, 2010 @04:34PM
(#1858119)
>I guess you could possibly launch one satellite and see if people would subscribe
For that, though, you'd need to put the satellite in geosync (nobody is going to subscribe to a phone service that's usable only every 100 minutes), which costs more to launch and requires the phones to have stronger transmitters. Thuraya uses geosync, but they started out as a regional carrier, so they could cover their region with one satellite.
Iridium went with polar LEO--I suspect that was partly because their goal was global coverage. Without a polar orbit, you can't get coverage at the poles. Insert cynical laughter about the profitability of such coverage here.
For that, though, you'd need to put the satellite in geosync (nobody is going to subscribe to a phone service that's usable only every 100 minutes), which costs more to launch and requires the phones to have stronger transmitters. Thuraya uses geosync, but they started out as a regional carrier, so they could cover their region with one satellite.
Iridium went with polar LEO--I suspect that was partly because their goal was global coverage. Without a polar orbit, you can't get coverage at the poles. Insert cynical laughter about the profitability of such coverage here.