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Iridium routes phone calls through space. In addition to communicating with the satellite phones in its footprint, each satellite in the constellation also maintains contact with two to four adjacent satellites, and routes data between them, to effectively create a large mesh network. There are four earth stations which link to the network through the satellites visible to them. The space-based backhaul routes outgoing phone call packets through space to one of the earth station downlinks ("feeder links"). Station-to-station calls from one satellite phone to another can be routed directly through space without going through an earth station. As satellites leave the area of an earth station, the routing tables are updated and packets headed for the earth station are forwarded to the next satellite just coming into view of the earth station. Communication between satellites and earth stations is at 20 and 30 GHz.[36]
Gateways are located in
Tempe, Arizona
Wahiawa, Hawaii — owned by DISA[37]
Avezzano, Italy
The pre-bankruptcy corporate incarnation of Iridium built eleven gateways, many of which have since been closed.[38] Gateways have also been built in Pune (India), Beijing (People's Republic of China), Moscow (Russia), Nagano (Japan), Seoul (South Korea), Taipei (Taiwan), Jeddah (Saudia Arabia) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).
Originally posted by jazz10
Trust me on this.
The Queensland floods have caused extensive damage to Australia’s telecom infrastructure, with Telstra alone reportedly facing a repair bill of up to US$49.9 million.
According to reports, while Telstra has stated that it will not be able to assess the full cost of repairs until flood waters finally recede, Merrill Lynch has estimated that it could cost up to $50 million based on the repair costs of the Victorian bushfires of 2009.
Weeks of flooding in Queensland took a severe turn for the worse this week, causing service disruptions for Australian operators and ISPs.
The report further revealed that some areas of Queensland may be without telecom services for up to 18 days. Both Telstra and Optus estimate it could take three months to completely fix and replace all the affected equipment.
Gateways are located in
Tempe, Arizona
Wahiawa, Hawaii — owned by DISA[37]
Avezzano, Italy
The pre-bankruptcy corporate incarnation of Iridium built eleven gateways, many of which have since been closed.[38] Gateways have also been built in Pune (India), Beijing (People's Republic of China), Moscow (Russia), Nagano (Japan), Seoul (South Korea), Taipei (Taiwan), Jeddah (Saudia Arabia) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).
[ex/]
These just so happen to be gateways for Iridium.
Iridium Iridium Communications Inc., the company that operates the satellite constellation
en.wikipedia.org...
Iridium Communications Inc. (formerly Iridium Satellite LLC) is a company, based in McLean, VA, United States which operates the Iridium satellite constellation, a system of 66 active satellites used for worldwide voice and data communication from hand-held satellite phones and other transceiver units. The Iridium network is unique in that it covers the whole Earth, including poles, oceans and airways. The company derives its name from the chemical element iridium. The number of satellites projected in the early stages of planning was 77, the atomic number of iridium, evoking the metaphor of 77 electrons orbiting the nucleus.
The satellites are frequently visible in the night sky as satellite flares, a phenomenon typically observed as short-lived bright flashes of light.
Iridium SSC, Iridium communications service was launched on November 1, 1998. The first Iridium call was made by then-Vice President of the United States Al Gore.[1] Motorola provided the technology and major financial backing.[2] The logo of the company was designed by Landor Associates, and represents the Big Dipper.[3]
On February 10, 2009, Iridium 33 collided with a defunct Russian satellite, Kosmos 2251, 800 km over Siberia.[10] A pair of massive debris clouds was created.[11] However, it should be noted that Iridium does have spare operational satellites and it was anticipated that some satellites would fail during the ordinary lifetime of the constellation.
Present statusIridium Satellite LLC has approximately 320,000 subscribers as of the end of December 2008 (compared to 203,000 in July 2007). Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2008 was US $76.8 million with EBITDA of US $25.0 million.[12]
The system is being used extensively by the U.S. Department of Defense through the DoD gateway in Hawaii.[13] The DoD pays $36 million a year for unlimited access for up to 20,000 users.[14] An investigation was begun into the DoD contract after a protest by Globalstar, to the U.S. General Accounting Office that no tender was provided. The investigation was suspended at the request of the Department of Defense, who cited national security reasons.[15]
The commercial gateway in Tempe, Arizona, provides voice, data, and paging services for commercial customers on a global basis. Typical customers include maritime, aviation, government, the petroleum industry, scientists, and frequent world travelers.
Iridium satellites are now an essential component of communications with remote science camps, especially the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. As of December 2006, an array of twelve Iridium modems was put online, providing continuous data services to the station for the first time. Total bandwidth is 28.8 kbit/s.[16]
The Iridium system requires 66 active satellites in orbit to complete its constellation and spare satellites are kept in-orbit to serve in case of failure. The satellites are in six polar low Earth orbital planes at a height of approximately 485 miles (780 km). Satellites communicate with neighboring satellites via Ka band intersatellite links to relay communications to and from ground stations. Most of these satellites were launched in the late 1990s before the company went through bankruptcy. Since the bankruptcy, only seven additional satellites have been launched but an updated constellation of 66 satellites is currently being developed and is planned for launch in 2015-2017 on SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch Vehicles from Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 3 in California [ex/]
Iridium satellite constellation, a constellation of satellites used to provide voice and data coverage
The Iridium satellite constellation is a large group of satellites providing voice and data coverage to satellite phones, pagers and integrated transceivers over Earth's entire surface. Iridium Communications Inc. owns and operates the constellation and sells equipment and access to its services.
The constellation operates 66 active satellites in orbit to complete its constellation and additional spare satellites are kept in-orbit to serve in case of failure.[1] Satellites are in low Earth orbit at a height of approximately 485 mi (781 km) and inclination of 86.4°. Orbital velocity of the satellites is approximately 17,000 mph (27,000 km/h). Satellites communicate with neighboring satellites via Ka band inter-satellite links. Each satellite can have four inter-satellite links: two to neighbors fore and aft in the same orbital plane, and two to satellites in neighboring planes to either side. The satellites orbit from pole to pole with an orbit of roughly 100 minutes. This design means that there is excellent satellite visibility and service coverage at the North and South poles, where there are few customers. The over-the-pole orbital design produces "seams" where satellites in counter-rotating planes next to one another are traveling in opposite directions. Cross-seam inter-satellite link hand-offs would have to happen very rapidly and cope with large Doppler shifts; therefore, Iridium supports inter-satellite links only between satellites orbiting in the same direction.[ex/]