We've known that
TerreStar Networks and AT&T Mobility were
in bed together for quite some time, but evidently the honeymoon phase is finally reaching its logical end. Reportedly, the carrier is gearing up to go live with an extension of service that'll involve satellites and a pinch of luck, giving select customers the ability to roam between its GSM network and TerreStar's satellite network. If all goes to plan (we're not holding our breath, for the record), AT&T will begin to resell satellite service and phones soon after the bird is launched some 22,000 miles above North America on July 1st. Once perched, it'll provide coverage across Canada and the US, including the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. There's no definitive word on pricing, but we're hearing that sat phone service will run around $1 per minute while hybrid handsets will go for around $700 (unsubsidized). Pricey, sure, but how else do you plan to phone home on your next visit to the Pitcairn Islands?
posted June 24th 2009 11:09AM
Does it have copy and paste?
and Flash??
$1 per minute. It must be based on an O2 iPhone contract.
$1 per minute!
AT&T has found a way to time travel back to 1990... Where is my Nokia flip and a Moto star tac?
Welcome to Rogers wireless in Canada. We have a buck a minute on US Roaming.
Sattellite phones have always been this expensive, or more.
And making a hybrid model one that runs on two diff plans should be even more so.
You mean Rogers AT&T?
That is when they were chargin $1 a minute.
I mean Rogers Wreless in 2009
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/06/23/rogers-introduces-travel-packages/
$15 for 15 Minutes
And plan w/o voice package, voice call is buck a minute
http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-plans/iphone_phones_plans
"Voice calls are $1 per minute if a Voice Plan is not subscribed to separately."
Proof
I've been to Pitcairn!!!
So what, $30 or $40 to call my family and talk with all of them? Kinda pricey there... but beats not being able to talk at all i suppose.
So is this another try at what Iridium couldn't do? At least the phone isn't the size of a ice chest anymore.
TerreStar... Did they hire Jammie Thomas as their spokesperson?
dammit, dammit, dammit. i knew i'd be too late for that joke.
does it get reception in Bin Laden's cave?
Service will not be available to the Pitcairns or Tristan da Cunha sorry, though it might be possible to reach Georgetown if the bounces are just right.
People can complain about $1 per minute all they want, but the ability to make an emergency call from just about anywhere in the continental US is worth a lot more than that to me.
I'm in Colorado, half the state has no coverage outside of satphones.
If the unsubsidized price is around 300 id pick this up easily, hell if the subsidized price is around 300 id pick it up anyway. If you travel a lot over seas it would be cheaper to pay ATT a dollar a minute then roam on someone else networks and pay anywhere from 2 - 4 dollars a minute depending on where you are.
I heard tethering will be available eventually, but not at launch.
I know of some ranchers that are just outside of town that this would save them hundreds a month from their current sat phone that is nearly 10 years old. Less than 25 miles from the beaten trail and you are on your own, haveing the sat phone has saved their lives literally a few times, but the one they have is dying and no longer reliable.
You mean like globalstar? they are launching new satellites this year and the reliability issues should be fixed. faster data too
YAY for Puerto Rico
:-/
is it a requirement that all satellite phones must be ugly as sin?
/I'm all for "Industrial" designer...i think thinkpads are hot...but this looks like a TV remote.
A sat phone is not about appeal at all. It is about functionality and being able to use it anywhere in emergencies or for terrorists, or if your stuck in a park with killer raptors. Which i can see where the price to use it justifies an emergency but still to much for me to own one.
Did they not learn from any other type of sat phones back in the past????
They all failed because it was to expensive. Come on a dollar a minute?
This sat phone endeavor is going to fail like all the rest, especially in these economic times.
So, let's recap...
AT&T releases wireless phones that don't work well in a lot of indoor places.
So, they release a satellite phone that won't work well in a lot of indoor places.
Make sense to me.
Of course, Iridium used 66 satellites covering the world, TerreStar is using one satellite to cover the US from a much higher elevation. Overall, coverage might be as spotty as... AT&T's coverage.
Yeah, I was wondering about this. My first thought was how can TerreStar afford a bunch of satellites (to be like Iridium). Once I saw that they're just using one satellite, my second thought was how can this possibly work?
To put this in context, compare to other communications satellites that use geostationary orbit. For C-band, ground-based antennas are at least 6 feet across, and DirecTV/Dish antennas are still at least 18" across. How can a pocketable device possibly receive and transmit to a satellite that's 22,000 miles away?
To find the answer, I went to TerreStar's website. Here it is: the satellite itself will have a 60 foot diameter antenna! This will unfold from the satellite body and be much larger than the satellite itself (in extent, anyway).
They also mention that it has 500 dynamically configurable spot beams (so that they don't have to blast signals over the whole continent all the time). This also suggests capacity limitations, though it depends upon the spot sizes & configurations, of course.
Isn't it a bit premature to announce the service and phones when the satellite doesn't even launch til July 1st? Its not like every satellite launch has gone perfectly. You might want to wait before you buy that $700 phone.
Nice MAN HAND.
How much for texting?
why are satellite phones so ugly. They should turn the iphone into a satellite phone so it can work everywhere, and still keep its 3G goodness...... Imagine service everywhere you go!! =O
Not really. I could see myself toting the Thuraya SO-2510. Not only can it use satellite networks, but also roam on GSM networks.
http://www.highspeedsat.com/so-2510.htm
Or maybe the Elektrorbit phone is more your taste:
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/02/19/elektrobits-satellite-gsm-hybrid-smartphone-reference-design-in/
Or maybe MSV's offering:
http://gizmodo.com/376436/touchscreen-satellite-phone-is-as-beautiful-as-a-normal-cellphone
Guess AT&T is living up to their motto of "more bars in more places".
Pitcairn Islands¿¿¿
They only have regulatory approvals for the US and Canada? It won't work in Cancun or the Bahamas.. Let alone the Pitcairn Islands.
And don't look for ATT to offer these phones anytime soon. As of this post.. There have been no FCC authorized phones for the Terrestar frequencies according to the FCC OET Equipment Authorization Web Site.
If it only gives coverage in US, Canada, USVI & Puerto Rico how does this help anyone on Pitcairn Island ?
I guess they'll have to wait until some future satellite is up over there, if that ever happens.
Assuming TerreStar gets the first bird up & running, and that they have some financial success, I wonder where they'd plan to put a second satellite?
Geosync sat will have horrible roundtrip delay, due to distance of the signal alone.
Itidium and Globalstar use Low Earth Orbit for a reason, hope they can retask the sat when this fails.