Satellite Phone Blog

Friday, January 05, 2007

The smallest satellite telephone GSP-1700

GSP-1700 satphone
Satellite phones have traditionally been big, bulky monsters that look more like bricks than actual phones. But just like their cellular phone cousins, satellite phones are also getting smaller. When you hit the road, you make do with our ordinary GSM handsets for voice calls, but that strategy doesn't always work when you are reporting from, say, the rural fringes of Kazakhstan.

After Thuraya, Globalstar debuted the world's smallest, lightest handset for use on a global satellite network. The new GSP-1700 mobile satellite telephone, which operates on the Globalstar satellite network in more than 120 countries and six continents around the world, is nearly half the weight of the company's current satellite handsets weighing in at approximately 7.1 ounces or 203 grams. And it's close to 45 percent smaller than Globalstar's other satellite phones. The lithium-ion battery is designed to provide users with four hours of talk time and 36 hours of standby time. The GSP-1700 is being manufactured by Qualcomm.

GSP-1700 is Globalstar's smallest satphone to date. In addition, this Qualcomm handset packs an EV-DO modem, so you can get high-speed data access from "virtually anywhere you can see sky," according to the company's website. We're not sure on the price of this handset, but given that its predecessor, the GSP-1600 goes for $750 (without a service plan), it's a safe bet that this one will go for at least that much when it's released "in the coming months."

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5 Comments:

  • At 7:33 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    My experience with Globalstar has always been plagued with problems. They cannot maintain a connection when switching between satellites and the low orbit of their satellites means a short conversation before the satellite fell behind the horizon and the call was dropped.

    It is a great product with none of that delay that has always been common on the older satellite phone systems, they just seem to have a long way to go on their service.

     
  • At 1:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    43% smaller by volume ?!?

    What's the use of paying for an expensive satellite phone if you don't get the massive Miami Vice-esque look :-)

     
  • At 2:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Satellite phones have traditionally been big, bulky monsters that look more like bricks than actual phones. But just like their cellular phone cousins, satellite phones are also getting smaller.

     
  • At 5:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    a lot of satellite phone companies are talking about the size of the phones and antennas of there up coming phones. Check out ico, terrestar, and msv plans. they are also talking a lot 4G high speed data. what i want is all the advances in link margin and propagation that will make this possible to allow me to have a current size phone with large atenna and low speed that will work 'indoors.' Give me an indoor capable handheld and nor going to complain about the size. How about putting the giant attennas from the geos on the next generation of leos?

     
  • At 9:56 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Ditto on "searching for a signal" which renders service virtually useless. The times I did connect, better talk fast because call drops without notice.

    In essence, for me, a pilot in remote areas, globalstar is unreliable which is unsafe. I made a mistake buying their equipment and services.

     

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