Satellite phone service providers, who dominate the satellite phone market, are all competing for a bigger slice of the growing market of satellite phones. There are various service offerings that are available with each company stronger in one sector of the marketplace than another due to the technical answers used by each to provide global, or almost global, telecommunications coverage.
There are some popular names you will see most frequently when researching satellite phone technology are Inmarsat, Iridium, and Globalstar. One can easily select a satellite phone easily, since each gives you clear idea and helps you refine your search for the satellite phone service that best suits your needs.
Inmarsat is the world's first global mobile satellite communication operator and offers a matured range of modern communication services to maritime, land-mobile, aeronautical, and many other users. It is formed 20 years ago as an international maritime organization. Inmarsat was reorganized as a limited company in 1999, and has broadened its customer base since then.
Iridium is considered as the only provider of truly global, truly mobile satellite voice, and data solutions with complete coverage of the Earth, including oceans, airways and Polar Regions. Iridium is based on the fact that they have a constellation of 66 Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites. Iridium providers pitch their services most heavily towards business users in heavy construction, defense/military, emergency services, maritime, mining, forestry, oil and gas, and aviation.
Globalstar has launched their commercial services in 1999 and today their handsets are most widely used all over the world. They offer you few benefits like you can use these phones in over 100 countries on six continents, as well as from most territorial waters and several mid-ocean regions. Globalstar signals are received by the company's constellation of 48 Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites and relayed to ground-based gateways, which then pass the call on to the terrestrial telephone network.
Handsets are most popular for voice calls, but usually offer lower data transfer speeds while communication. Larger laptop style terminals are also used widely and offer you in various purposes which include fax, Internet, and video. They are developed to be more stable to suffer less from dropped signal problems.
Marine and aviation are specialized environments, so it's best to stick to the equipment designed for these settings. If your traffic is chiefly voice calls and picking up email, you probably don't need the more expensive higher speed data transfer services on offer. The more speed and features you go in for, such as fax services, the higher the cost.
