Satellite Phone Blog

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Thuraya SG-2520: World’s First Satellite Smartphone


SO-2510 introduces breakthrough technology in the new Thuraya SatPhone, setting the standards for the smallest and most robust satellite handset in the industry. The premium SG-2520 handset will support Thuraya and GSM 900/1800/1900 networks, will be GPRS-capable and will run on a Windows-based operating system. It will be the first satellite phone with color display and built-in camera.

thuraya SO-2510The new generation Thuraya handset is powerful and compact, offering total convenience and mobility. With Thuraya, you can enjoy uninterrupted, seamless, border-to-border satellite telecommunication services in more than 110 nations in Europe, North, Central Africa and large parts of Southern Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia. The new Thuraya SatPhone opens up the boundaries in communication, enabling you to go even further. The company gained worldwide prominence when it was reported that members members of some terrorist networks used Thurayas, as they are harder to pinpoint the location of than regular cell phones.

Telefonia Satellitare keeps on keepin' on with their dual-mode GSM satellite phones. We're hesitant to call the GSM aspect worthy of the title "worldphone" because it's tri-band, but the devices do feature GPS, GPRS, USB connections, Bluetooth, and a 1.3 megapixel camera; the smaller 2510 is the budget handset. Buy it to call your mom from the top of Everest, dude!

posted by HighSpeedSat @ 2:27 AM  

4 Comments:

  • At 10:30 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    "Sat phones are nowhere near dead." - Try telling that to the people in the Gulf coast or Iraq. Thuraya call charges (like Iridium) are between $0.50 and $1.50. Very much in line with regular GSM roaming, and often even cheaper.

    With the current state of affairs in the world sat phones are pretty much here to stay. ~~~~Faust

     

  • At 10:32 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I concur with all who say satellite phones are not dead. I live in Hawaii, and have been looking into getting a satellite phone for the next natural disaster to hit us and take out cell towers, land lines, and all other communication so when I'm floating in the ocean because our island sank, I'll be able to call one of my pals and get the latest score on the Patriots game.
    Scoobydoo

     

  • At 11:20 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    An article in the local paper says that reporters traveling with forward units in Iraq have been told not to use Thruaya phones. The theory is that the phones have integrated GPS and transmit their locations.

    Does anyone have any details on how and when Thuraya phones transmit their locations?

    I believe that Thuraya phones must transmit thier location during call setup so the system knows which beam the phone is in. Technically, I think this happens at the start of each call.

    I also believe that this info is not to be easily accesible, as there are privacy issues. How this info would be accessed and passed on to the US military for geolocating the phones is a tough one. The phone may also use signals from the Thuraya satellite itself to locate the phone - and may not use the US GPS system.

    Ok, this is a lot of guess work - I too am interested if any of my 'theories' are right ;-). Does anyone out there have first hand Thuraya experience?

    amygye

     

  • At 1:24 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    1. If the GPS is used for picking the spot beam, why doesn't ACeS also have an integrated GPS? I know that INMARSAT stations spend a bit of time selecting the best spot beam.

    2. As for how difficult it may be to glean the position from the phone, I assume that one only needs an antenna in the footprint to pick up the satellite downlink and the resources of a national intelegence organization to break the code.

    Here is an interesting article that backs up what I had thought - that the GPS data does wind up at the ground station.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/68/30011.html

    Inmarsat uses power levels of spot beam ID carriers to select the best beam to be in, I believe. With Thruaya, I think the handsets first communicate via a global beam, and pss thier location to the ground station equipment which assignes modems in the correct spot beam, based on thier location.

    To locate this type of phone, you would probably need to detect and demodulate the initial transmissions from the phone itself as it sends it's location data. The phones antenna's are not that directional, so this may not be as difficult as it sounds.

    I don't think that any position information is in the downlined signals.

    Also, if you were receiving signals in a Thuraya beam, all you could determine is that there is a system operating somewhere in the beam.

    If you had enough reception stations on the ground, you could triangulate the locations of the phones. I am sure the military has this type of technology to locate enemy radios - and location transmissions from satellite phones may fall into that category.

    amygye

     

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