In China alone, there are half a million villages with no telephone service whatever. In just a few months, the next worldwide wireless telephone service will be launched Globalstar, with important partners such as Vodafone and China Telecom in addition to Loral. In contrast to all other systems so far, Globalstar uses low orbit satellites. This reduces transmission time and hence costs. Put another way, it increases the bandwidth of the system.
Radio waves travel very fast.
Still, when you are sending a lot of data thousands of miles into space and bouncing it back, the distance factor is important. He believes the partnership will begin by charging 35 cents a minute for wholesale links, with retail charges about a dollar a minute. That s high but a lot cheaper than Iridium, and prices should come down over time. Gilder projects that the system can break even with 400,000 subscribers while it can handle 4 million. Adding additional satellites will bring on more capacity.