Some of the satellite phones are bigger in size than the mobile phones that you see today and heavier too. It is more expensive to buy compared to your mobile handset. In the event you find yourself in a situation where you require the guarantee of connectivity, where the other alternatives do not exist or are scarce, a satellite phone becomes an invaluable means to meet your general communication requirements and possibly a life saver as well. In such cases you may consider renting a satellite phone, which is affordable and becomes a valuable and essential asset in your journey to the middle of no-where.

A satellite phone needs the open sky to operate. It cannot be used from inside a building or in such places where the sky is not visible. It is the antenna of a satellite phone which should have the sight of the clear sky above, for the phone to operate. This would mean that such phones will not work indoors unless you are by the side of a window with a view of the clear sky. Not only that, the window should face such a direction where the concerned satellite currently is, if the satellite happens to be a Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellite. There is the other type, which is called a Geostationary Earth Orbiting (GEO) satellite, remains in the steady state relative to the Earth’s movement. While LEO satellite orbits the Earth at a relatively low altitude, a few hundred miles above the Earth, GEO satellites are placed at about 22,000 to 32,000 miles above the Earth, where they remain in the same position above the Earth’s surface at all the time.

If you are on a ship, you might have to go on to the deck to be sure to have that open space for a reliable operation of your satellite phone. If you are in a car, you would put that external antenna that came along with your phone on the roof of the car to have a reliable connectivity. But mind you, you may have difficulties of dropped calls in urban areas because of the high rise buildings. If you are outside but in the middle of a forest, the trees might block the line of sight of the satellite and your calls may get dropped or disrupted.

The GEO satellites, being placed much higher than the LEOs, cover a greater part of the earth, are able to see a larger area. On the other hand, the LEOs would need a constellation of satellites to relay the communication information from one satellite to the other, for it to reach the desired destination. The LEO satellite orbits the Earth once in about 90 to 100 minutes and this is the reason why the round-trip time for transmission is minimal. More-over, being at a lower altitude, some 600 miles above the Earth, the power required to transmit signals from Earth is much lower compared to the GEO satellites. Satellite phones, serviced by LEO satellites, require a shorter antenna, while the ones meant for the GEOs are quite larger in order to accommodate for the power required to transmit signals to the concerned satellite. The disadvantage of LEO satellites is that they need to operate in a fleet as they orbit the Earth at a larger speed, synchronised in the manner that when one satellite moves out of a certain position, the next one takes over.

There are several companies offering satellite phones on rentals - Iridium, Globalstar, Inmarsat and Thuraya.

The Iridium space sector comprises of a network of 66 satellites in orbit at a distance of about 500 miles above the Earth. These satellites are Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites and work as a constellation of 66 satellites. Iridium satellites cover the Earth’s surface with narrow beams that provide a clear established link, which does not cause iny delay in transmitting. Iridium phones are small and light-weight, having a small antenna and have the feature to connect you worldwide.

Iridium provides you with the flexibility in taking your handheld Iridium 9505A or 9505 phone on or off your vehicle or boat. If you have a docking station along with it, you will have a RJ-11 port to plug in your conventional analog and cordless phones. The Iridium phone is provided with a sophisticated filter that removes most of the noises that are usually present on the Iridium network.

As soon as your Iridium phone is activated, the closest satellite will detect your phone and determine if the phone belongs to that group of satellites and will also check your user’s account for its registration and validity. The satellite also determines the position of your phone. On making a call, the phone communicates with the closest satellite directly. This is then transferred from satellite to satellite, till it reaches the concerned satellite which will then re-transmit the information to the desired Earth Station. Your Iridium phone connects you a landline infrastructure anywhere in the world.

The features of your Iridium service includes -

Ø Voice, fax, email and data communication to and from anywhere in the world.
Ø A roaming phone that you can take with you anywhere you want.
Ø One phone one number anywhere you go.
Ø Fast connectivity.
Ø One simple bill for your entire account, in one currency.
Ø You can have options of post paid or pre-paid connections.
Ø Affordable call charges with one basic charge fixed to call PSTN lines.
Ø Incoming calls are free.
Ø Extremely easy to use.
Ø It provides a standard data rate of 2.4kbps and has the option to provide 10kbps via the direct Internet Data Service.

The average price offered for an Iridium phone for renting would be around $9 a day, with theft and loss protection insurance at $6 a day with $400 deductible. The outgoing call charges would be in the region of $1.99 per minute, with voicemail retrieval at $1.50 per minute. Calls to other Iridium phones may cost about $1.50 a minute and calls to Inmarsat Satellite Phones are at $10 per minute.

Globalstar first came into service on a progressive basis in the year 1999. Its commercial services were introduced in three phases: the so called ‘friendly users’ service trials in the October of 1999, the introduction of a preliminary service to a handful of users in November, 1999 and the full commercial introduction of its services in North America in February, 2000.

With the introduction of Globalstar, the entire communication scenario changed. The advent of satellite telephony brought forth the era when communication became possible even from those 50% area of the world which has little or no telecommunication facility what-so-ever.

Business houses, governments and even the recreational users had the ability now to communicate no matter where they are, whether they are travelling in such regions where such infrastructures as landlines and cellular coverage, are not available. The Satellite phone proved its distinct advantage.

Globalstar services started to find its way into many areas of industries and these include:

- Companies in the natural resources business, specifically oil and gas, mining and forestry enterprises
- Maritime industry, fishing boats, and recreational boaters
- Transportation, such as railways and trucking
- Cellular users who are looking to extend the range of their existing service
- Various federal and provincial government agencies
- Leisure businesses in remote areas and recreational enthusiasts, who fish, hunt, snowmobile etc.
- Recreational vehicles, cruise ships etc.
- Global business travelers who travel to destinations where local telephone service is unreliable or expensive

The IPhones from Globalstar, which is the mobile unit, the GSP-1600, has a sale price of about $750, being the most competitive equipment in the market today. To rent a GSP-1600 mobile phone, it would cost you approximately $40 per week, having the following options and accessories:

- Voicemail $15.00/rental.
- Internet/email access with Data Kit (serial PC cable & software) $25.00/rental.
- 12 volt DC cigarette lighter adapter cable $10.00/rental.
- Leather carrying case $8.00/rental.

As far as call charges are concerned, Globalstar offers -

- Home Area (USA) - $1.59/Minute.
- Canada Roaming - $1.59/Minute.
- International Roaming/Long Distance - $3.49/Minute.
- 19-Character Text Messaging - Free.

The above prices are all average figures, liable to change.

Thuraya is a regional satellite service provider, mainly serving Europe, Middle East, and Africa. The service centers on one single geostationary communications satellite, with one back-up and the third coming up and is planned for launch in the year 2007. 2007. The Company is based in the Middle East and provides its services through different authorised service providers.

The company provides voice communication with handheld terminals and maritime or land-based fixed stations. It provides Short Message Service (SMS) and data and fax services at 9.6kbit/s. It also features 144kbit/s high-speed data services via notebook-sized Hughes terminal (ThurayaDSL), with built-in GPRS services along with services such as news, call back, voicemail, WAP, etc.

Thuraya has more than 250,000 handheld subscribers at present, with the growth slowing down during the course of the year 2005. The handsets offered by Thuraya have dual-mode features, facilitating operation on the Thuraya satellite and also as GSM mobile phone working on the 900MHz bandwidth. This is unlike the one from Iridium, while having the same feature as Qualcomm handsets on the Globalstar system. Qualcom is a CDMA/Satellite featured phone.

Thuraya has the following average charges -

- Calls to any destination except not shown in their list - voice: $1.25 per minute, Data/Fax service - $1.80 per minute.
- Calls to other Thuraya phones - $0.85 per minute, Data/Fax service - $1.40 per minute.
- Calls to Iridium - $3.00 per minute, Data/Fax service - $3.00 per minute.
- Calls to Inmersat - $3.00 per minute, Data/Fax service - $3.00 per minute.
- Calls to Inmersat A - $5.50 per minute, Data/Fax service - $5.50 per minute.

Charges shown above are average and may be different from offer to offer.

Communication satellites have brought a telecommunication revolution. It has brought connectivity to the entire world, reaching out to those areas where none of the basic infrastructure of communication exists

A lot has been said about the iPAQ and it’s various models. In this article I’d like to talk about a specific model, the iPAQ H6315 PDA, and what has been the experience of people with this model. Please note that this device is a PDA - phone combination, also known as “smart phone”. This increasingly popular option gives you more added value because you don’t need to carry your cell phone around in addition to the PDA.

Let’s begin with going over the features of this device:

1.The H6315 is an integrated PDA + cell phone. In the US, this device works perfectly along with the T-Mobile and Cingular networks. What does this mean for you? Well, you can forget about carrying around two devices (PDA and cell phone) and replace them with one device.

2.This device has the ability to connect to a GPS system. You can actually find your way to any destination in the country using the GPS system along with a suitable map software. Make sure you install the voice software so your iPAQ can give you sound directions while you are driving.

3.Full Internet and email capability. This is a standard feature among PDA’s today, but it’s worth mentioning. The ability to connect to the Internet makes this device especially useful. Imagine you are driving your car to a new client, using the directions the PGS system gives you. At some point, the client calls your phone. You can take the call with your iPAQ while still driving and talk to the customer. Let’s say he want to send you a PDF file. No problem. He send it to your regular email account, and it’s being forwarded to your iPAQ. You now can access the PDF file through your email and PDF software that are installed on your iPAQ. If you need to see more data from the Internet maybe - again - no problem - you can use the browser on your iPAQ.

4.Calendar and reminder. Let’s say you are out of your office all day. Your iPAQ calendar can be updated automatically with all your appointments while you are on the go.

5.You get all these capabilities for less that $500. This is a lower price than the competing machines and you get great value for the price.

Ok, so we’ve gone through the good stuff, let’s look at a few disadvantages of this device, as were reported by actual users on websites such as Amazon.com:

1.The device requires quite a few “soft resets” while operating. Now this is not so unusual, as many of us experience this with our PC’s. To eliminate this problem as much as possible make sure you upgrade your ROM to the maximum possible. This will enable you to use all the PDA’s abilities with lower chance of resets.

2.Sound of voice on the phone is a bit weak. But this can be addressed with the proper software that enhances the voice level.

Hopefully this review helped you make a better decision about your future iPAQ. The HP iPAQ H6315 PDA gives good value for money option, and is a worthy option in today’s PDA market.

Cell phone and PDA cell phone combo users are downloading, buying, and playing more and more add-ons than ever before. From cell phone wallpaper (backgrounds and images) to games and ringtones, it seems cell phone users just cannot get enough!

There are also even newer software and information packages that come as add-ons to the PDA/cell phone market. You can download software that tells you how to mix any drink imaginable and even tells you which types of glasses to use for each drink.

You can purchase and download golf software applications of all kinds. And let’s not forget the multitude of Bible ebooks that are available almost the instant a new PDA model is available!

Ringtones are always a major pull online and tens of thousands of them are downloaded every day from places like Cell-Phone-Nation.com and hundreds of sites like it.

Many PDA phones are coming out with Adobe PDF readers that make reading an “ebook” the same as reading online at home from your desktop computer.

Marketers are picking up on this booming market and scurrying to supply more choices in topics and information to this hungry, under served market.

Already there are some applications coming out to organize recipes, mixed drinks, gold scores, sports betting and virtually anything else you can imagine. But only if the creators of these products make them available for specific platforms like Blackberry.

Podcasting is a major topic now among marketers. With the ability to get online with your cell phone, you can easily surf to a site that makes audio and even video presentations, commercials, and seminars available for download instantly to your phone.

The market for cell phone software, ringtones, podcasted audio and video, and myriad other files, photos and games is wide open and ready for smart marketers to pounce on for major profits in a relatively brand new industry.

To date, you can only buy and download one sales and marketing related ebook at Sprint.com, out of about ten selections for your Blackberry PDA Cell Phone. The other selections? The Bible and a bartender software.

The market is truly in its infancy. Moving now on this market will be a cash cow for smart marketers looking for fertile ground for increased profits. If you are not actively seeking out spots in the podcasting and PDA software market, you are losing money as we speak.

When I bought my Blackberry, the first thing I did was go to the add-ons and third party applications to get cool stuff to put on it. The selection was miserable. After downloading an ebook on marketing, there was nothing left for me to purchase.

Many people will feel the same way until they are given real choices in the software and information they can purchase as add-ons to their new toys.

To discover a glaring void in the market the size of this one is unheard of in this day and age. For the marketers who seize its potential and start actively supporting the market with choices, the sky is the limit for increasing reach and profits.

Choosing the best cell phone takes planning and the knack for really knowing yourself. Your cell phone has to fit your lifestyle, and that includes your budget. Almost all cell phones require you committing to a long term contract with a cellular company, so make sure you read the fine print, in order to avoid any disappointments later on.

Armed with the knowledge of how much you want to pay, you can quickly decide what features you want. Herein lies the secret to choosing the best cell plan: when you know exactly what you want, and how much you’re willing to pay, you can always find just the perfect phone.

Some principles to base your cell-phone purchasing decision on:

1) Not all cellular carriers or networks are created equal

2) Phone quality directly affects customer satisfaction

This means you need to do your research in order to find out what type of phone and what type of cellular plan is right for you. Find out what people who already own the phone are saying. Research customer reviews and notate if anyone has brought up certain issues or problems with plans or providers. It might seem painstaking to do this level or research, but the hours of hassle it saves you later on will be well worth it.

Several key components of picking the best cell phone are:

1) Cell phone styling and features - loads of features and sleek design is what most people want

2) Reliable and cost-efficient cellular plans - cell phones are monthly bills, people who pay monthly want a good service that works

Cell phone styling varies widely in range, and it’s recommended that you look at and hold several different styles of cell phones to get a good feel for what to expect. A phone that doesn’t feel right in your hand, will be one you’re unhappy with. The easiest way to see a variety of cell phones is by visiting a local retailer. If the screen is hard to read, or the keypad is difficult for you to work with, you need to factor that into your decision to buy. Keep a small checklist of the pros and cons of the purchase. If the cons outweigh the pros, then decided against it.

Next make sure to rigorously investigate the cellular plan you’re expected to purchase, and read it before entering into the agreement. Make sure all fees are disclosed, and that you understand what you’re agreeing to in terms of total payments. It’s better to be careful up front, than regret the decision for years.

Expectations of cell phone consumers is high, and it’s no wonder why: with over 800,000,000 phones sold in 2005, this is one of the most popular products in the world. Companies ranging from Nokia to Sony Ericsson make millions of units monthly and ship them to locations around the world. Education is the best tool that a cell phone consumer can have these days.

Have you ever heard of an Internet phone?
If not, get prepared to change the way you think about long distance phone calls. You can actually use your Internet connection to make cheap telephone calls anywhere in the world. Today we find several Internet phone service providers across the world that provide this service at little or no cost and can help you reduce your phone bills drastically.
Over the last decade, we have seen that the Internet and computer technology have changed the way people live, work and communicate. An Internet phone is one such revolution that has changed the way people talk with each other.

How does an Internet Phone work?
An Internet Phone uses Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which converts the voice signal from the telephone to a digital signal. This digital signal travels over the Internet and is converted back at the other end to voice so that you can speak to anyone with a regular phone number. VoIP sends voice information in digital form in discrete packets rather than in the traditional circuit based protocols of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and helps you use your standard Internet connection to make phone calls worldwide at a very low or no cost.

How to make a call using the Internet Phone?
To make a call using an Internet Phone, you can subscribe to an Internet Phone Service. Besides this, you need to have a good speed Internet connection in place. Some Internet Phone services allow you to use a regular telephone, as long as you connect it to an adaptor while others allow you to make calls from a computer or a special VoIP phone that doesn’t require an additional adapter.
Depending upon the service that you choose, one way to make a call is to pick up your phone and dial the number, using an adaptor that connects to your Internet connection. Another way is to use a microphone headset plugged into your computer. In this case, the number is dialed using the keyboard and is routed through the cable modem.
In fact your computer need not even be turned on in case you are making calls with a phone and adaptor or special VoIP phone. It’s just that your Internet connection needs to be active. You can even use your computer while you are talking on the phone.

How to choose an Internet Phone Service?
Depending upon the Internet Phone service that you choose, you might be limited only to other subscribers to the service, or you may be able to call any phone number, anywhere in the world. The call may be made to a local number, a mobile phone, a long distance number, or an international number. You can even utilize the service for a conference call, that is, to speak with more than one person at a time.
Different Internet Phone Service providers offer various plans for making calls. Some providers offer their service for free, normally only for calls to other subscribers to the service. While others charge for a long distance call to a number outside your calling area, similar to the existing, traditional telephone service. Still some other providers permit you to call anywhere at a flat rate for a fixed number of minutes.
Before choosing an Internet Service Provider you have to carefully look at his offering and balance it with your needs.

Benefits of using an Internet Phone Service

The biggest benefit of using an Internet Phone is that you can make cheap phone calls as you are utilizing an existing data network that is the Internet. Moreover since VoIP is digital, it offers features and services that are not available with a traditional phone. It gives you the flexibility to combine phone calls with business data and offers value added features like integration with software on your computer.
The Internet Phone also provides you with the ability to be mobile as you can take your phone anywhere in the world. Besides this, it provides you access to features like voice mail, caller ID, call conferencing, call forwarding etc.

The Flip side…. disadvantages
Despite the numerous advantages that an Internet phone offers, there are some disadvantages to utilizing the service. First, an Internet Phone is dependant on power. Your current phone runs on power that is provided over the line from the central office, so even if your power goes out, your phone connection still works. With an Internet phone, you cannot use your phone service in case there is a power failure. Unlike using traditional PSTN technology, that is dependent on a point-to-point connection, the Internet Phone utilizes the Internet and its web-like, multi-link network. Therefore if a traditional PSTN circuit phone line is down or cut for some reason, you will be unable to make a call. With Internet Phone service, if a specific link is down, the call will just be routed over one of the many other routing options that the Internet provides to still complete the call. There have been many recent natural and man-made disasters, where Internet Phone Service, was the only available and working service - as both PSTN lines and mobile cellular towers were rendered inoperable.
Additionally, early Internet Phone Service suffered from issues of “delay” which causes the problem of “echo” and “talk overlap”. These initial Internet Phone Service offerings were susceptible to all the problems normally associated with home Internet connections like latency, jitter and packet loss. Due to all these factors phone conversations can sometimes become distorted, garbled or lost. In the last few years, with the improvements to the Internet backbone, broadband technologies and VoIP protocols and codecs, most of these issues have been corrected.