Satellite Phone

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What Does Satellite Phone Mean?

A satellite phone is a telephone that has the ability to connect to orbiting satellites. Similar to terrestrial mobile phones, they can connect to voice and short messaging service as well as low bandwidth Internet access.

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Satellite phones can connect from anywhere as they are directly connected to satellites around the world and do no depend on terrestrial mobile networks.

Techopedia Explains Satellite Phone

Features of a satellite phone:
1. Has basic phone features but is heavier and bulkier than cellphones.
2. Capable of providing wide area coverage.
3. Can provide uniform performance. However, compared to terrestrial phone services, the voice quality could be lower and there could be delay in communication due to latency.
4. Has same number and does not change.
5. Does not need any installation or setup.
6. More expensive than other forms of phones.
7. Has larger external antenna and do not have internal antennas.
8. For Internet access, has low data bandwidths.
9. Usage might need prior permission from local government and there are regulations regarding their usage
10. In disaster struck areas, useful in getting connected for needs.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.