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| Iridium engineering studies Iridium Satellite LLC today revealedthat it will start a major engineering study program in 2006 as the next steptoward developing its next-generation satellite constellation. Iridium provides mobile communication services globally through aconstellation of 66 cross-linked, low-earth orbiting (LEO) satellites.Independent studies have projected that the service life of the existingconstellation will extend until 2014 or longer under various configurationoptions. "It is time for us to begin the process of defining and shaping thesatellite constellation and network architecture that will carry IridiumSatellite into the future beyond 2014, " said Iridium Satellite executive vicepresident, Greg Ewert. "Over the next two quarters, we will contract withmajor industry firms to collect and analyze performance data from our existingsatellites. This data will provide the foundation for our next-generationsystem. It will also enable us to begin looking at the technology andproducts that will be needed for the next two decades and beyond. It's veryexciting for us to be engaging industry on everything from laser cross-linkedtechnology to a product portfolio that might consist of IPTV, on-demand radioand video or enhanced GPS." Ewert noted that the current satellite system has sufficient capacity tosustain continued growth in both voice and data traffic well into the future. "We have every reason to expect that many of the existing satellites willstill be functioning into the 2020s, and we intend to ensure that thetransition from the old to the new satellites will be seamless with backwardcompatibility, " Ewert said. "We will also continue to provide uninterruptedservice to our customers, who are depending on Iridium for a wide range ofmission-critical applications." write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Networking News :: home page |