Special Report Satcom Shakeout Three mainstream technologies are emerging, each with its own advantages and shortcomings. By Fred George thereby enabling avionics manufacturers to develop smaller, lighter and less expensive satcom systems. Online charges for emember all that hype about these other services also were re- the “Office in the Sky” duced, but their coverage areas Rconcept over the last two were considerably smaller. decades? It’s been waiting for Such evolutionary changes cost-effective voice and continued until about four broadband connections be- years ago. Then alternative tween airplanes and the satcom systems started to ground. Now, it’s finally provide fierce competition becoming a reality be- for Inmarsat, igniting a cause of a revolution in revolution in satcom serv- three satcom technolo- ices for business aircraft gies. These three tech- operators. Since 2000, for nologies, supplemented example, Iridium has pro- by a couple of others, are vided cost-effective basic quickly making most con- satcom telephone service, ventional air-to-ground putting a large dent in telecommunications links Inmarsat’s aeronautical sat- as obsolete in the cabin as com phone business used by LORAN and VLF/Omega passengers. receivers are in the cockpit. In 2002, broadband commu- Some business aircraft makers, as nications satellites began to pro- a result, are on the verge of drop- vide satcom data link services that ping conventional air-to-ground ra- offer as big a data transfer pipe as any diotelephones from their options landline in your office on the ground. In catalogs. the next several months, these systems will Need to call a client while en route? Basic start to appear on business aircraft. This, satcom telephone service now is available too, is putting pressure on Inmarsat to of- all the time, anywhere on the planet for as port safety and administrative communica- fer higher value services and more compet- little as $1 or $1.25 per minute depending tions between ships at sea and their home itive prices. upon service plan, inclusive of long-distance bases. A decade later, avionics were devel- This three-way competition is heating charges. Shop carefully and you’ll get those oped for airliners that provided voice and up, and business aircraft operators are the rates when calling from overhead Paris, low-rate data link communications for beneficiaries. Here are the details of what Texas, to Paris, France; above Cape Horn transoceanic missions. Early satcom avion- these three satcom technologies can offer to Cape Town; or while en route from ics cost $500,000 or more and weighed 250 you today and in the near future. Abidjan to Auckland. to 300 pounds, and all the boxes couldn’t fit Contrast that coverage area and those rates into a outsized steamer trunk. So, only a se- Iridium: The Platinum to conventional air-to-ground, inflight radio- lect few large-cabin, long-range business Standard in LEO telephone service. It’s no contest. Satcom aircraft operators could stomach their price, Back before the proliferation of cell phones wins hands down. In the next decade, satcom weight and size. around the world, a consortium led by voice and data services will make air-to- Inmarsat online charges still run $8 to $10 Motorola launched a bold plan to develop ground radiotelephones and data links all but per minute for its best quality services, plac- the ultimate satcom phone service. The vanish from business aircraft. ing the satcom off-limits to all but the top plan called for launching 77 low Earth orbit Much has changed since 15 years ago, brass aboard the aircraft. No wonder the (LEO) satellites, hence the name Iridium, when the International Maritime Satellite service never caught on with business air- reflecting the atomic number of that ele- (Inmarsat) consortium had a monopoly on craft travelers, let alone mainstream airliner ment. The satellites were positioned in six satcom services. Inmarsat launched its first passengers. polar orbits at an altitude of about 420 nm. generation of four geostationary communi- Eventually, Inmarsat broadened the range The constellation was later reduced to 66 cations satellites in the early 1980s to sup- of its aeronautical communication services, LEO space vehicles, plus in-orbit spares, to 84 Business & Commercial Aviation I September 2004 www.AviationNow.com/BCA BCA • ISSUE: September 2004 PAGE: 84 / Version: #1 Special Report save cost, but that still was plenty sufficient to relay the signal. As a result, GlobalStar is tomers each month. to provide continuous, worldwide satcom limited in coverage area because each of the By then, Iridium had spent about $5 bil- phone service. This would provide telecom- ground stations is located on land. In addi- lion on nonrecurring expenses and was in- munications to millions of folks without ac- tion, bent pipe system satcom providers typ- curring well over $40 million per month in cess to landline phones. ically add roaming charges for long distance operating expenses. With a trickle of rev- LEO satcom phones must continuously because it must be provided by landline tele- enue and a flood of debt, Iridium LLC de- scan for other satellites because of the rela- phone service providers. clared bankruptcy in 1999. GlobalStar sank tively rapid movement of each satellite. Iridium, in theory, needs only one ground into Chapter 11 bankruptcy a year later. Before the satellite being used travels out of station to handle the signals relayed from Daniel A. Colussy, former operations di- signal coverage, the satcom phone must “internetworked” satellites from end users, rector for Iridium, organized a group of in- complete a handoff to the next most suit- anywhere in the world. Based solely upon vestors known as Iridium Satellite LLC and able satellite. These phones automatically ground station call handling capacity, offered five cents on the dollar for the sys- compile a list of the satellites with the though, Iridium’s original business model tem. Motorola balked at the $25 million bid, strongest available signals so that the hand- planned for up to 12 ground stations to but in late 2000, the bankruptcy judge OK’d off can be made without interrupting a call. serve the millions of customers expected to the deal and Iridium Satellite LLC became Iridium’s “internetwork” architecture as- use the system. the new owner. Iridium satcom services sures seamless coverage around the globe. The revenue projections, though, esti- were relaunched in March 2001. Each satellite can relay phone calls to mated that each consumer would be willing Colussy immediately terminated a $42 the four nearest adjacent satellites. Calls are to pay steep rates just for basic telephone million per month contract with Motorola relayed from satellite to satellite until they service. Moreover, first-generation Iridium to operate the system and hired Boeing for can be beamed down to one of the net- telephones were expensive and bulky, cost- $3.5 million per month for essentially the work’s ground Earth stations. Iridium’s in- ing upward of $3,000 and barely fitting into same range of services. He also slashed ternetwork relay capability puts it in a class a shoebox. Iridium’s bloated staff by several hundred by itself. But then the cell phone industry spread people, further stemming negative cash Its main LEO competitor, GlobalStar, its coverage throughout most populated ar- flow. uses “bent pipe” relay technology, so named eas, offering customers considerably lower Iridium Satellite LLC then was on a solid because it requires the specific satellite be- prices for compact mobile phones and footing to break even with 50,000 to 60,000 ing used by the satcom phone to be in direct much lower online charges. This siphoned subscribers. And the firm already had 25,000 line-of-sight range of a ground Earth station off thousands of potential Iridium cus- long-term U.S. government subscribers as www.AviationNow.com/BCA 86 Business & Commercial Aviation I September 2004 BCA • ISSUE: September 2004 PAGE: 86 / Version: #1 anchor customers. It’s the only truly global potentially may interfere with GPS and coverage areas, high reliability and rock- telephone system available for U.S. military, other L-band avionics systems. It’s advis- solid integrity. Commercial satcom services diplomatic and intelligence agency person- able to mount the external Iridium phone were almost an afterthought. Following the nel. Even the best Inmarsat systems lose antenna at least three feet away from any advent of maritime safety services, ICAO coverage above 75 to 85 degrees north or other L-band avionics antenna. Potential certified Inmarsat as the sole provider of south latitude. interference from portable Iridium phones aeronautical safety services in the early Subsequently, Colussy turned over the should be checked thoroughly on the 1990s because of system coverage area, re- reigns to new chairman and CEO Carmen ground before using them in flight. liability and integrity. Lloyd in October 2003. Iridium Satellite A wide variety of satcom service providers Most of the government-sponsored or- LLC now has more than 100,000 sub- compete for Iridium customers, but many ganizations that composed the original con- scribers and it’s generating positive cash equipment manufacturers lock customers sortium eventually sold out to private flow. Lloyd claims the firm is adding 2,000 into long-term service contracts, so it’s ad- companies. U.S.-based COMSAT, for ex- to 3,000 new subscribers each month. visable to read all the fine print in sales con- ample, sold out to Lockheed Martin Global “We had a 44-percent increase in revenue tracts. Most added value service providers Telecommunications in 2000. London- from 2002 to 2003. And we’ve experienced don’t charge extra for long-distance calls.