king@uunet.uu.net (Steven King) (06/27/90)
Here's the second article published about the Motorola orbiting cell-site
plan. This is from the {Chicago Tribune}, Tuesday, June 26 1990. Again,
this is all I know; and again, all typos are mine.
----------------------------
MOTOROLA PHONE NET TO DIAL 77 SATELLITES
(by Marianne Taylor)
By the end of the decade, Motorola Inc. envisions equipping a
Chicago-based business executive with a cellular phone that works just
as well when he steps off a plane in Melbourne, Australia, as it does
when he makes a call on the way to his Arlington Heights home.
What stands in the way of this vision is about $2 billion in
investment, the launch of a flotilla of 77 low-orbiting satellites,
and a vast array of complex technical considerations.
But if a system is developed as outlined by a Motorola executive
Monday, it would place the Schaumburg-based manufacturer of
sophisticated communications equipment firmly in the lucrative realm
of providing cellular phone service.
Durrell Hillis, Motorola vice president and general manager of
satellite communications, said the company intends to form a
consortium of four or five organizations, including Motorola, that
will fund and develop the first global satellite-based cellular
telephone system. The company has dubbed the venture "Iridium"
(naming it after the chmical element that, past and present high
school chemistry students will remember, has 77 electrons).
Speaking in advance of a Tuesday briefing, Hillis said three
organizations have signed agreements with Motorola to study the
venture, although none has committed funds.
These organizations have passed tough licensing tests that permit them
to transmit voice and data signals by satellite in certain areas,
including the U.S., so that Motorola won't have to seek separate
licenses in those areas.
Hillis said Motorola hopes to have firm agreements with its partners
in the venture, as well as funding commitments, by the end of the
year. If Motorola signs with four other partners, its initial
investment would be $400 million, Hillis said.
Motorola plans to launch a network of 77 satellites that would orbit
the earth at a relatively low altitude -- about 414 miles -- to
provide mobile-phone service to parts of the U.S. and the world where
current land-based mobile systems cannot, or have not yet been able
to, reach. The firm plans to launch two demonstration satellites by
1992, all 77 by 1994, and have full service as early as 1996.
The satellite system not only would provide access to such
hard-to-reach areas, but also would provide worldwide coverage via
satellite for cellular customers, enabling a caller using a portable
phone to communicate anywhere else, Hillis said.
In some areas of the world where traditional phone service is sorely
limited by outdated or scarce equipment, Motorola hopes its new
network will provide more basic telephone service.
"In some Eastern Bloc countries, for instance, there is a tremendous
need for communications systems," Hillis said. With a satellite-based
system, "the infrastructure would be overhead, in space," so that a
government need only issue appropriate licensing for an auxiliary
phone network, which would then open the way for a new market for
telephones and the satellite service.
Motorola intends to retain an ownership interest in operating the
system, as well as to build the telephones and eventually about half
the replacement satellites, Hillis said.
The first batch of satellites will be built by a yet-to-be-named
subcontractor, Hillis said, but Motorola hopes to build half the
satellites thereafter at its plant near Phoenix.
The company already has announced an expansion of its mobile-pohone
manufacturing capacity, with plans to build a new facility in north
suburban Libertyville.
Motorola expects the cellular telephone market to grow to 100 million
customers worldwide by the end of the decade, Hillis said. The
company hopes to snare a small portion, or 1 million, in that time for
its satellite-based network, although the system will have a capacity
for 10 million customers.
The first handsets for the system will cost about $3,000, said Ray
Leopold, Motorola's systems manager for the Iridium project. Although
the fees per minute to use the system will be determined by whoever
contracts with the Motorola consortium to provide the service in
different areas, Motorola estimates that a call at first will cost $3
a minute -- about 10 times what it costs to make a call on existing
mobile-telephone systems, which use land-based transmitters.
The three companies agreeing to cooperate in the early stages of the
venture are American Mobile Satellite Corp., a Washington, D.C.-based
space technology company that holds a Federal Communications
Commission license to provide mobile satellite service to users in the
U.S.,; Telesat Mobile Inc. of Canada, which has similar agreements
north of the border; and International Maritime Satellite Organization
of London, an international consortium that has rights to transmit
signals to ships at sea, as well as on land in several countries.
-----------------------
Sidebar: "Global network for cellular phones"
Motorola's Iridium satellite system will allow people with portable
cellular radiophones to communicate anywhere on earth.
"Satellite system"
The $2 billion plans include a network of 77 small satellites
ringing the planet in low-earth orbits.
"Placing a call"
Portable cellular phones with small antennas will transmit signals
directly to the closest satellite. After the caller is verified as
a subscriber, the call is routed through a series of satellites
to its destination.
Steve King, Motorola Cellular (...uunet!motcid!king)gammal@altitude.cam.org (Michael Gammal) (06/30/90)
I don't trust Motorola's world-wide plans! (World Cellular) Sounds like a nice way for espionage! Think about it... Every single user has their own coding.... Thus can locate any individual anywhere! Talk about tracking ... among other things.... Such as the fact that since it can receive calls the tracking is simple since no need for the phone call to originate with the user. FBI, CSIS, CIA, KGB, you name it! It is will also be useful when they develop cellular mini-belt and watch phones. Terrorists can be tracked in seconds!!! Anyone on a plane can be tracked and won't even know it. A hijacking is what I refer to. Michael Gammal Apple //e & Atari Enthusiast Dawson College gammal@altitude.CAM.ORG qp qp qp qp qp qp qp Montreal, Que. db Support Nature db Canada
roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) (07/02/90)
gammal@altitude.cam.org (Michael Gammal) writes: > I don't trust Motorola's world-wide plans! (World Cellular) > Sounds like a nice way for espionage! > Think about it... > Every single user has their own coding.... > Thus can locate any individual anywhere! An interesting idea, indeed. The way I saw the plan presented, though, I'm not sure how closely a sat-cell call could be tracked. I'd like to find out more about this system. Perhaps someone could point out some references or post a summary of the technical details to the Digest? Roy M. Silvernail | Opinions found now available at: | herein are mine, cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu | but you can rent (cyberspace... be here!) | them.