A Space-Based Phone System to Serve the Entire Planet

For those who have yearned to say, “I’ll call you from Kinshasa,” “Ring me in Riyadh,” or “Page me in Paraguay,” Iridium has answered your call.

On Sunday, the company launched commercial phone service over its long-awaited global communications network, a $5-billion system of 66 orbiting satellites linked to ground equipment around the world.

While the new phone and messaging service is still too pricey for use by the masses, it will probably gain popularity with globe-trotters employed by governments, the Red Cross and other international groups, and by industries ranging from mining and oil and gas to commercial fishing and the media.

Iridium’s service is the first in a wave of ambitious satellite projects, and its launch is being heralded as a turning point for worldwide communications and a significant technical achievement.

“The [call reception] quality is OK--like an analog phone. And sometimes there have been some issues of network availability,” said Mark Lowenstein, a senior vice president at Yankee Group, a Boston-based research firm. “This is not going to be the be-all, end-all little satellite phone that fits in your pocket, but it’s the beginning of a new wave of communications, and I think it’s very important.”

Washington-based Iridium is financed by a global consortium, with 19 major investors, including Lockheed Martin Corp., Motorola Inc., Raytheon Co. and Sprint Corp.

A publicly traded entity, Iridium World Communications Ltd., is based in Bermuda and trades on Nasdaq. The company’s U.S. affiliate is Iridium North America, based in Tempe, Ariz.

The service relies on its space-based network of satellites, which circle the globe in low-Earth orbit, 485 miles above the planet. But the company also uses a series of “gateways” on the ground, which can collect phone or pager signals and carry them through an existing network on the ground.

Customers must use a special phone, which will first seek out an existing cellular or other service. If it’s unable to connect with an existing phone service, Iridium will link with the nearest satellite, which will relay the call through the constellation and back to the ground at the appropriate point.

“Iridium can offer one phone and one number that can be used anywhere in the world, even where there is no existing cellular network, but you’re paying a pretty hefty price for that,” said Shea Silidker, a wireless consultant at Strategis Group, a Washington research firm.

Iridium’s prices will be steep compared with those for services available in urban and developed regions.

The special phones will cost about $3,000, with pagers available for about $700. Phones designed for global cellular roaming, without the use of satellites, cost about $200, according to Iridium. Service costs will vary by country, but will range from $2 per minute for calls on ground-based networks to $70 more, the company said.

“There’s no question that they have a tremendous market opportunity,” AT&T; Wireless President Daniel Hesse said at a recent industry trade show. “The challenge for Iridium is going to be cost.”

Jim Walz, president of Iridium North America, acknowledges the service is not for the casual user. But he notes that 58 million people will be traveling outside the United States next year, and many of them will want a sure way to communicate--without the hassles of foreign language, foreign currencies, foreign phone systems, or the risk of having no phone service at all.

By 2002, there will be an estimated 600 million wireless subscribers worldwide, Walz said. He said that 12 million to 15 million will need global mobility or satellite services, “and our goal is to get 5 million of that.”

But not everyone is looking forward to that day.

Iridium’s satellites operate near a key portion of the radio spectrum for astronomers, and researchers say strong signals from the service will interfere with their ability to “see” into deep space. The problem is made worse by increasingly sensitive radio telescopes, which can pick up the faintest signals created by space’s most basic molecules.

“Iridium’s signal is so strong, it completely blocks out anything that we could see,” said Jean Turner, a radio astronomer and an astronomy professor at UCLA. “They did try to filter [the stray signals] out, but what is low emission to them is not low to us.”

Astronomers using standard light telescopes can still find spots on the globe relatively unaffected by the glare of city lights. But radio signals from Iridium blanket the globe, leaving radio astronomers little recourse short of taking their telescopes to the other side of the moon.

Iridium has promised to lower the power of its signals during off-peak hours.

“We went one by one and signed agreements with the radio astronomers” and major radio telescope sites, said Michelle Lyle, a spokeswoman for Iridium. “We’re going to have to learn to coexist together.”

But even with the Iridium agreements, radio astronomers will find it increasingly hard to do research.

There are several other satellite constellations on the horizon, including Globalstar (48 satellites),Teledesic (288 satellites) and Sky Bridge (80 satellites).

“We’re very depressed, because we are beginning to see the end of our field,” Turner said. “If we have to go up against money, ultimately, we’re going to lose.”

The public airwaves--the radio spectrum--are crowded with new commercial services, from pagers to teleconferencing, and keeping signals from interfering with one another is becoming more difficult.

“In a couple years,” Turner said, “we are not going to be able to see the night sky.”

Elizabeth Douglass can be reached via e-mall at elizabeth.douglass@latimes.com.