A satellite phone is a telephone that has the ability to connect to orbiting satellites. Similar to terrestrial mobile phones, they can connect to voice and short messaging service as well as low bandwidth Internet access.
- Satellite phones can connect from anywhere as they are directly connected to satellites around the world and do no depend on terrestrial mobile cellular networks.
- A satellite phone is designed to work outdoors, mainly where the mobile phone is not operational due to the lack of a network, more often in very isolated places and, to times, in extreme conditions.
- The first satellite phone was launched by Motorola about 30 years ago, in 1989. At that time, the Motorola firm was the world leader in satellite telecommunications. The satellite phone was invented to overcome the limitations of the classic GSM mobile phone: to be able to communicate by phone in any isolated area of the planet, on land and sea, where there are no terrestrial antennas. Satellite phone is particularly useful in the most isolated regions of the world such as mountains, forests, poles, deserts and in the middle of the ocean.
