Globalstar President of Global Operations Tony Navarra said that with those satellites operational, the company expects to begin providing quality affordable mobile satellite voice and data services to customers around the globe later this summer.

   “It has been a long road to recovery but these four satellites becoming operational is expected to pave the way for us to begin offering quality mobile satellite voice and data services in August,” Navarra said in a statement. “Over the past 20 months, we have completed the launch of 18 of our 24 new satellites. Today we can already offer customers the clearest satellite voice calls and the fastest handset data speeds in the industry and our dealers have started to report strong increases in interest in our duplex services thanks to the improved performance.”

   Navarra added that the company also expects to add additional satellites into service in the fall to further increase the performance of our network.

Globalstar is currently working with satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space and launch services provider Arianespace in order to conduct its fourth and final launch of six new second-generation satellites prior to the end of the year.