Can SAT phones make it commercially?

By V Sridhar, Professor at IIIT Bangalore; currently visiting the University of Southern California.

There is renewed interest in Satellite communication deployments, with Starlink operated by SpaceX, and OneWeb promoted by Bharti Global vying to enter in to the Indian market for offering satellite broadband connectivity to nook and corner of the country. There have been many issues yet to be resolved including the frequencies to be allocated for satellite broadband, the methodology of allocation whether it be administrative assignment or through auctions, and the placement and interconnections at the ground stations.  Prior to the era of Internet, there were flurry of activities around Handheld Satellite phones (aka Sat phone) in early 2000s. 

Sat phones rely on a network of satellites for communication.  Sat phones are rarely affected by violent storms and, depending upon their system architecture, work virtually anywhere. The devices weigh a few ounces and are about the same size as the cell phones. Traditional Sat phone buyers are government and public safety agencies, energy companies, shippers, and search and rescue organizations. However, an increasing number of private individuals are also buying Sat phones as a backup against losing their ability to communicate with the world.

Robert Galvin, the legendary son of Motorola's founder and who was then its Chairman, gave the green signal for a project that could be the cornerstone of the communications industry in the 1980s. The ambitious engineers at Motorola's headquarters at Schaumburg, Illinois in the U.S. toiled on the architecture of a system of sixty-six Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites placed at the height of about 781 km above the earth surface, arranged in a necklace configuration covering almost the whole globe, including the north and south poles. With much fanfare, Iridium LLC, with support funding from Chinese and Russian governments to the tune of about $2 billion, launched the service on Nov 1, 1998. However, the satellite service failed to catch the attention of consumers. Nine months after the launch, it had only 20,000 customers. In November 1999, Iridium filed for bankruptcy, much to the chagrin of all technology enthusiasts. 

At about the same time, GlobalStar launched a similar network, but with entirely different architecture, called bent-pipe. This system relied upon 48 satellites placed in orbit about 900 miles above the earth, also called Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). Globalstar went bankrupt in 2002. It lost about half of its first-generation satellites and is just trying to rebuild itself. A regional network, Thuraya launched in 1997 and began operations in about 2001. Based in the UAE, it was designed to serve Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Its handsets were dual-mode, which meant that subscribers could roam on both 2G GSM networks as well as talk via satellites in the Geo Stationary Orbit at the height of about 36,000 Kms. The INMARSAT LLC, the UK based company specializing in maritime communication services also entered in to the Sat phone market in the late 2000. 

Why are there so many unsuccessful attempts in the Sat phone market? The primary reason being the cost of the handset of around $1000 compared to very cheap and affordable mobile handsets available worldwide. Though the early Sat phones were primarily designed for telephony, today’s Sat phones are Smartphones and are broadband capable. Apart from the handset costs, India boasts of the lowest data rate and hence it is disputable whether the satellite broadband services can effectively compete with mobile broadband. 

Apart from affordability, the radio spectrum required for satellite broadband is also controversial. Starlink with its close to 3,000 satellites in MEO and LEO constellations have the Federal Communications Commission approval for use of Ku band (12-18 GHz) and Ka band (27-40 GHz); and applied for approval for E band (71-86 GHz). Some of these bands are being used for Direct to Home Television broadcasting in most countries, including India. Hence close frequency coordination is required so that the existing services that are using these bands are not affected. 

The satellite broadband can provide both access service directly to the users; but can also be used as backhaul links (that connect different terrestrial Points of Presence). While in most countries, radio spectrum that is used for access is auctioned, backhaul spectrum is assigned using administrative method. Hence, India needs to decide whether the radio spectrum for satellite broadband, given its evolution should be treated on par with spectrum for commercial mobile services and hence auctioned or not. 

Providing Internet connection from space is tricky. Apart from the many successful Sat phones projects, Google scrapped its “Loon” project that aimed at providing Internet connectivity via a string of balloons. Though the Sat phones were very useful during Kargil war, the commercial and societal benefits of satellite phone and broadband projects are still in the asking! 

(This article first appeared in Hindu Business Line: 5 April 2022)