Low Earth Orbiting LEO Satellite Systems

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• Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) Satellite Systems
• Waqas Ahmad
• Emiko Ogawa

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Type of Satellite Orbiting

• Geosynchronous Earth orbit satellites (GEOs)
• Medium Earth orbit satellites (MEOs)
• Highly elliptical orbit satellites (HEOs)
• Low Earth orbit satellites (LEOs)

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Type of Satellite Orbiting (cont.)

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Type of LEO

• Little LEO
• Big LEO

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Little LEO

• Offers non-voice communications
• Vehicle tracking
• Weather monitoring
• Low speed data communications
• Based on small number of satellites

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Big LEO

• Offers voice and data communications
• Cellular like services
• Paging
• More in the future
• Based on big number of satellites

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Technical Advantages Disadvantages

• Advantages
• Close to earth
• Less cost for launching
• Less power and size
• Less voice delay
• Disadvantages
• Coverage of earth is limited
• Satellite coverage area is not stationary

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Big Players

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Iridium
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Spectrum Table

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Vendors
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Big Players

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Iridium

• Founded by Motorola and a consortium of 19
  members (Lockheed Martin, SK Telecom, Sprint
  etc.)
• Started commercial services in 1998
• Has licenses to operate in more than 120
  countries and territories
• The biggest subscriber is the US Department of
  Defense

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Iridium
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Globalstar

• Founded by Loral and QUALCOMM
• Agreements
• Service providers in more than 100 countries (90
  of the world population)
• Vendors and partners (Ericcson and QUALCOMM)
• Scheduled to start commercial service in the 3Q
  of 1999

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Globalstar
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Odyssey

• Have not yet determined service areas
• Aims at a larger, lower-cost market than the
  Iridium or Globalstar services
• -gt Odysseys market will grow once the developing
  world opens access

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ICO Global Communications

• UK based, Established by Inmarsat
• Plans to begin commercial service in 2000
• Over 50 of ICOs strategic investors are from
  developing markets
• More than 60 commercial carriers and industrial
  partners make up the alliance

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ICO Global Comm.
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Overview
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Issues

• Economic situation and customer base
• Securing finance is critical
• Keeping up with the rapid change of
  telecommunication technologies