Each gateway, which is owned and managed by the service provider for the country in which the gateway is located, receives transmissions from orbiting satellites, processes calls, and switches them to the appropriate ground network. A gateway may service more than one country.
Gateways consist of three or four dish antennas, a switching station and remote operating controls.
Because all of the switches and complex hardware are located on the ground, it is easier for Globalstar to maintain and upgrade its system than it is for systems which handle switching in orbit. Gateways offer seamless integration with local and regional telephony and wireless networks. Encryption ensures voice and signaling security for individual transmissions. GOCCs plan the communications schedules for the gateways and control the allocation of satellite resources to each gateway. Globalstar satellites continuously transmit spacecraft telemetry data that provides on-board health and status reports for the satellites.