TerreStar Networks, a majority owned subsidiary of TerreStar Corporation (TSTR), is a next generation, wholesale mobile communications provider launching the first integrated satellite terrestrial service with the world’s first satellite-terrestrial smartphone.
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TerreStar provides a fully integrated and resilient satellite-terrestrial mobile network. This network will leverage TerreStar’s S band mobile satellite service (MSS) spectrum with an advanced all–IP ground-based open-architecture terrestrial network to provide voice, data and video services to end-users – from government officials and emergency first responders to adventure enthusiasts and consumers in rural communities.
TerreStar will use new and existing commercial chipset technologies from Qualcomm and Infineon to embed satellite communications capabilities into smartphones that can be carried as everyday phones. The first TerreStar smartphone was designed by Elektrobit Corporation and is:
The first satellite-terrestrial smartphone with an internal antenna
The world’s first Windows Mobile-based quad-band GSM and tri-band WCDMA/HSPA smartphone with integrated all-IP satellite-terrestrial voice and data capabilities, a touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard.[1]
On July 1, 2009, from French Guiana in South America, TerreStar launched its geosynchronous satellite, TerreStar-1. TerreStar-1 is the world’s largest and most advanced commercial communications satellite that will provide communications services across the continental United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Hawaii and Alaska.[2] The satellite’s size along with the extra power and sensitivity of its antenna allows it to communicate to conventionally sized mobile devices.
On July 14, 2009, TerreStar-1 successfully reached its orbital slot (at 111 degrees) in the geosynchronous arc and successfully deployed its 18 meter 2 GHz S Band reflector.[3] On July 20, 2009 TerreStar completed the first end-to-end satellite-terrestrial phone call over TerreStar-1.[4]