[Asterisk-biz] Asterisk/SIP over satellite? Iridium=Teledesic?

[Dorn Hetzel]

On Tue, Dec 28, 2004 at 02:06:20PM -0700, Michael Welter wrote:
> Dorn Hetzel wrote:
> >On Tue, Dec 28, 2004 at 03:24:25PM -0500, Paul Rodan wrote:
> >
> >>Curious. Iridium looks very similar to Teledesic which has all but
> >>disappeared. Are they one and the same?
> >>
> >
> >Iridium got built and then the operator went bankrupt (and took
> >$5K of my money with them, lesson learned...).  There was actually
> 
> 
> What ever happened to the GlobalStar satellites?  Are they still in 
> business?

Fewer birds and trickier coverage than Iridium, consequently 
less money spent.  Still went BK or close (I can't remember their
actual details since it was bit less personal).  Still in
operation, see www.globalstar.com ...  rates not too bad if you
spend a lot of time in the way-out-there :)  Their coverage,
however, is not as global as Iridium since they rely on a
groundstation<-->satellite<-->subscriber model instead of
the more capable (and more expensive to build) Iridium model
with cross-satellite links...  Iridium can do:

groundstation--satellite--satellite--etc--satellite-subscriber

so you can be at the south (or north) pole or wherever on
earth with no shared sky view with any groundstation and *still*
call the kids and wish em merry xmas :)

-Dorn