With the explosive growth of mobile phones, we’ve come to realize that phone service is not restricted to phone wire connections. However, there is still a substantial mount of the planet, approximately 85%, that isn’t close to mobile phone transmitting towers, so there’s no regular phone signal. That’s where satellite phones come in.
A satellite phone, or a satphones, is a type of mobile phone that connects to orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites. Satellite phones provide many of the same functions as terrestrial mobile telephones, such as voice and short messaging services, and the low-bandwidth Internet access on the phones is supported through most systems. Depending on the build of the phone, coverage may include the entire Earth, or only specific regions.
Satellite phones do provide the ultimate in global coverage and they are a convenient and portable way of keeping contact anywhere in the world, but they do have certain trade-offs. Satellite phones tend to be bulkier than regular cell phones. And, yes, while it may be true that in theory, they provide global coverage, satellite phones don't normally work inside buildings or anywhere where there is an obscured view of the sky. Satellite phones are also more expensive to buy and their airtime rates are also higher.
One of the more important differences in satellite phone services is whether the satellite phone uses low earth orbit (LEO) or geosynchronous (also called geostationary) satellites. Most satellite services allow data as well as voice to be sent and received, however, these services have very slow data bandwidths. The slow data transfer rate along with the high cost per minute of airtime means that a satellite phone shouldn’t really be used for casual web surfing. Most satellite services are also set up for faxing. Few of the services offer portable handsets.
The cost of making voice calls from a satellite phone varies from around $0.15 to $2 per minute, while calling them from landlines and regular mobile phones is more expensive. Costs for data transmissions (particularly broadband data) can be much higher. Making calls between different satellite phone networks is often similarly expensive, with calling rates of up to $15 per minute. Most satellite phone networks have pre-paid plans, with vouchers ranging from $100 to $5,000.