I received an email from an industry friend the other day that I've decided to share with you all here.
"In response to numerous and loud complaints about the lack of reliable service from the
Globalstar satellite phone system, on which we have relied so heavily to tell those who we left behind what a good time we are having in the outback, the message has got through.
This morning I attended a presentation by Peter Bolger of Pivotel (until recently
Globalstar Australia) hosted by the WA Department of Treasury and Finance. DTF have been fielding many of the complaints from the Government sector and no doubt might have been feeling a bit nervous about public sector employees wandering off into the wilderness with a communication system that has knowingly been deteriorating since 2005.
Peter explained that whilst his company,
Globalstar (Aust), has invested heavily in the Australian ground sector of the system it is the
Globalstar (USA) satellites that are the problem. Apart from sharing a common name (but no longer) the two companies are not linked – ie neither has control over the other. He assured us that his ground sector is in good order and constantly being upgraded but the problem is with the power supplies of the satellites that are now up to 10 years old. The lack of power means that the satellite does not effectively connect to the phone (hence the lack of lock), but the other links (phone to satellite, satellite to network gateway and reverse) are largely unaffected.
Eight new satellites have been launched this year (most recently last Sunday) and most are in service so there should be an improvement in service. However, this is only represents about 20% of the constellation, the rest will continue to degrade until the new constellation is fully deployed (2009-2011).
To mitigate the continuing problem Pivotel will be announcing, around the end of the year, a subsidised replacement of
Globalstar handsets to all current customers who would prefer to move over to the Telstra Iridium system. Pivotel’s new identity has allowed them to expand their business direction giving them access to other networks, including Iridium.
In the interim the
Globalstar system will continue to operate however, for dual system handsets, access to the CDMA network will cease on Jan 28, 2008."
As I said, I didn't attend this meeting, but this email was shared with me from someone who was there and I knew it would be rather interesting for those following what's going on with
Globalstar's service.