Mobile Satellite Ventures is a company that sells satellite talk time to oil companies and others that find themselves outside the range of traditional wireless phone services. MSV is planning to launch two of its own satellites in the next two years to service customers in North America. The birds will be able to receive a lower-power signal from phones back on Earth, so the MSV handsets will be quite a bit smaller than the typical sat phone. One model is about the size of an iPhone.
MSV is planning to partner with some large cell phone providers. The phone will automatically choose local cell service when it's available, and the sat link when no cell service can be found. The switch from terrestrial to satellite service will be transparent to the user, in the same way that XM radio switches from satellite to local transmitter when you drive through a tunnel in an urban area. This will keep the cost of the talk time to a more reasonable level.
This is all slideware* at this point, and the satellite communications industry has a history of companies that talk big and fail to deliver. Many of the MSV principals come from companies that crashed and burned in the last 10 years. So there has to be a big caution flag displayed next to this post.
That said, the MSV offering points the way to a hybrid phone service that would provide an affordable connection, using the same phone, regardless of your location. Cool!
Chip Haven
*slideware is a product concept that exists only on the Powerpoint slides shown by people seeking money to build the product
MSV is planning to partner with some large cell phone providers. The phone will automatically choose local cell service when it's available, and the sat link when no cell service can be found. The switch from terrestrial to satellite service will be transparent to the user, in the same way that XM radio switches from satellite to local transmitter when you drive through a tunnel in an urban area. This will keep the cost of the talk time to a more reasonable level.
This is all slideware* at this point, and the satellite communications industry has a history of companies that talk big and fail to deliver. Many of the MSV principals come from companies that crashed and burned in the last 10 years. So there has to be a big caution flag displayed next to this post.
That said, the MSV offering points the way to a hybrid phone service that would provide an affordable connection, using the same phone, regardless of your location. Cool!
Chip Haven
*slideware is a product concept that exists only on the Powerpoint slides shown by people seeking money to build the product