Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) demonstrated Oct. 19 that a phone the size of a consumer mobile unit can be used to communicate via satellite as well as existing wireless networks with only minor modifications. The demonstration proves that the company’s plan to roll out a hybrid terrestrial wireless/satellite network is feasible, MSV said.

“There are quite a few people who doubt several things about the commercial reality of doing this,” Mark Faris, COO of MSV, told Satellite News. “Our intention here was to get the experience for the engineers and quell or shut down some of the doubters. Things like form factors of the phone or cost to develop a form factor that is commercially desirable — being a phone like you are wearing today — are some of the targets that we are after. So it was a major milestone for that.”

Technical Aspects

In order to create a phone that could work via satellite and terrestrial wireless networks, MSV modified CDMA 2000 handsets that communicated in the 850 MHz band by removing the PCS functionality from the phone and replacing it with an L-band radio. The software in the phone and on a base station also were modified to allow for L-band communications. The base station was then hooked up to ground station dishes at MSV’s Ottawa gateway to allow the call to be made via the company’s two satellites. As part of the demonstration, the modified phones retained their 850 MHz connectivity, allowing MSV to demonstrate that the phones could make calls on both the satellite and terrestrial wireless networks.

“People who don’t have much background in satellites, they just think a satellite phone somehow has to be the size of an Iridium or Globalstar phone,” Santanu Dutta, vice president of systems engineering at MSV, told Satellite News. “We have tried to explain to them that if we put the firmware in the same chipsets as in the terrestrial component of the phone, and we don’t have duplication of chipsets and other components for the terrestrial and satellite side, there is no impact on the handset side. More importantly, there is very little impact on the cost of the handset because the firmware that needs to go on the terrestrial phone’s chipset is pretty minor in the amount of memory that it requires to run.”

Some industry observers acknow-ledged that the technology demonstration is a significant milestone for MSV. “Technically, that it can be done is great, but the more significant part is that it can be done without much additional cost to the handset and without material modification,” Gregory Giammittorio, partner with law firm Morrison & Foerster LLP, said. “I worked on the Iridium project extensively and one lesson learned is that the size, cost and functionality of the handset must be comparable to what is currently in the market for terrestrial wireless.”

Faris and Dutta said the ultimate goal is to offer a product that provides consumers the same kind of functionality available on today’s handsets and suggested that users could see applications that are better suited for use over the satellite links that the hybrid network would offer. “We are looking at broadcast,” Dutta said. “That is something that satellite excels in. We might provide a ubiquitous broadcast component that you might find hard to do with terrestrial. Having TV over cell phones is the hottest thing right now.”

Faris stressed that no assumptions should be made as to the preference of using CDMA technology as the terrestrial component for MSV’s hybrid networks. “We will continue to work with the different air interfaces,” he said. “We are continuing to work with vendor partners for the network elements and also for the chipset/handset manufacturers to determine what the package is that we can deploy.” MSV also is working on its terrestrial deployment plans and is in talks with unnamed satellite manufacturers to secure contracts for the company’s next-generation satellites that will be used as part of the hybrid network.

MSV is on target to meet internal milestones as well as those set by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in its license for deploying the hybrid network, Faris said, and suggested that an announcement on the satellite manufacturing contract could come by year’s end.

The next key technical challenge will be to demonstrate that the phone can make a seamless transfer from the terrestrial network to the satellite network. MSV could not demonstrate this feature in the proof-of-concept trial because MSV did not own the terrestrial component used for the test, Faris said. The ability to seamlessly transfer between a wireless network and a satellite network likely will be the key to making a viable business proposition for the hybrid network and will open up the market to consumers and businesses alike.

“There is a bright future for the hybrid wireless/satellite networks,” Giammittorio said. “People don’t care how they get voice and data services. They just want them on demand with very high levels of call quality and virtually no outage time. The hybrid systems create the prospect of providing seamless coverage available [anytime], anyplace. Although some people may be satisfied with their current coverage, I think the market is sufficiently large. I believe there are large numbers of consumers who don’t like being out of service for 20 to 30 minutes or more when they drive to other cities for work or vacation. There are also significant markets for the enterprise customer, first responders and other domestic emergency and safety personnel.”

Skeptics Remain

Although one of the goals of the demonstration was to silence doubters, some industry observers are still skeptical on how successful offering an ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) will be for Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) companies.

An informal survey on the home page of the Mobile Satellite Users Association Web site shows six of 26 respondents to the question, “Will the use of ATC help or hinder the operation of mobile satellite systems?” said it would hinder operations.

Ahmad Ghais, former president of the association, acknowledged the significance of the demonstration but questioned the future for hybrid wireless/satellite networks. The ability of a satellite phone to go back and forth between terrestrial wireless and satellite networks is not groundbreaking, as that ability was a part of the design of early Globalstar phones, he said.

Ghais also noted that MSS operators are finding ways to be successful without the benefit of ATC in developing areas and questioned the broad need for hybrid services in the U.S. market, leading Ghais to question what MSV’s overall play is in the terrestrial wireless market.

—Gregory Twachtman

(Frank DeMaria, Brunswick Group for MSV, 212/333-3810; Gregory Giammittorio, Morrison & Foerster, 703/760-7320)