[Satellite Today 10-17-08] Globalstar Inc. signed a contract with Ericsson Federal Inc. to develop, implement and maintain a ground interface or core network system that will be installed at Globalstar’s satellite gateway ground stations, Globalstar announced Oct. 17.
    The IP-based core network system is wireless 3G/4G compatible and will link the Globalstar radio access network to the public-switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or Internet. The agreement, valued at $22.7 million, represents the final ground network infrastructure component for Globalstar’s next-generation of advanced IP-based satellite voice and data services.
    Globalstar plans to begin design and development of its third-generation handsets, satellite machine-to-machine devices and other terminals. The new ground network architecture is designed to support speeds of up to 1 megabit per second to the subscriber equipment and up to 256 kilobits per second to the satellites in an all-IP configuration. Services supported would include push-to-talk and multicasting, advanced messaging capabilities such as multimedia messaging and mobile video applications and geolocation services.