Now that mobile telephones are as common in police work as the two-way radio is, what do you do when the mobile phone doesn't work? Your option may be a satellite telephone. No longer is a satphone an option only available to the Department of Defense, other federal agencies or terrorists on 24. The pricing and availability of satphones have placed them in reach of most police agencies.
There are several types of pricing plans. Some plans provide for a set number of minutes a month at a preset price. Another plan charges a basic monthly fee and then charges per minute for calls made or received. The last pricing plan is prepaid service. Even though the price of satphone service is still more than mobile phones, the pricing has become much more affordable over the past few years. The market price for a hand-held mobile satphone is just over $1000 for the phone alone and the price continues to fall.
The satellite telephone market went through some tough times during the late 1990s, but after the attacks of September 11, 2001 and then Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the demand for satphone service greatly increased and the market expanded.
How they differ
What exactly is a satphone? A satellite telephone differs from a cellular mobile telephone in that it transmits a radio signal to satellites in space instead of radio towers on Earth. Because of this, satphones will still work if land based and cellular phone service is out. As reliable as hard-wired and mobile phones are, they can still lose service due to many factors, some of which could be system overload, utility line damage and the latest possibility, an ordered shut down of the wireless phone system.
During the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, the terrorists were communicating with each other by way of mobile telephones. They were even told to leave their phones on so their handlers could hear the attacks as they happened. Because of this, NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has stated that if a Mumbai-type attack were to occur in New York City, the mobile phone network would need to be shut down. Satphones would still continue to work in this scenario.
Satphones can also be used for more than just voice communications. They can also transmit and receive data, text messages or access broadband internet. Satphones are no longer suitcase-size devices that require a team of people and time to set-up. The current generation of mobile satphones is not much larger than the last generation of cellular phones. Since handheld satphones require a clear line of sight to the satellites and thus will not work indoors, there are work-arounds to this limitation. There are docking stations that allow a handheld satphone to be used as a base phone indoors with an antenna being placed outside or a dedicated base station phone, also with an external antenna. These configurations can also be used in a motor vehicle, such as a mobile command post. Satphones do not require another satphone to communicate with; they can also talk with landline phones or regular mobile phones.
Another difference in satphones compared to cellular mobile phones is that they will function in just about any location in the world. An example is if your jurisdiction includes a large rural area that does not include a wireless network infrastructure, (no cell towers), a satphone would provide you with telephone service, while conventional cell phones would not.
Satphones are not very complicated to use. Hand held satphones are operated almost like a mobile phone with one major difference. The antenna must be pointed up to the sky in order to acquire the satellite signal; once the signal is acquired calls can be made and received. You will notice that on mobile satphones the antenna is over-sized and can rotate, allowing it to be pointed skyward.
Satphones are not intended to replace current mobile telephone or mobile radios, but are another option for communications, especially in emergencies. They are soon approaching the point of not being a luxury but a necessity.