The Iridium Satellite Phone That Was A Disaster, But Is Now A Success
Since the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the Trade Centers, there were many who thought of the Iridium satellite phone systems to be a useless contraption. The satellite phone has always been pitched to the globetrotters as a phone that has signal. These were phones that were unreliable and most of the time very expensive for travelers. These phones were infamous at the time, because this satellite phone was always unable to pick up a signal. The reason why Iridium could not find a signal was because there were not many satellites in service at that time.
This caused coverage gaps. There was also a time when the developer of the sat phone found itself at a loss, because they were unable to determine what to do with the satellites orbiting this market. There was also a time when “talk” almost put an end to the satellites and they wanted to shut them down so that they can fall from space and incinerate in the atmosphere. This was going to be the case if they were unable to find someone to buy over the incredibly and faltering system.
Disaster struck in the year 2001 when the Trade Centers and the Pentagon were hit by terrorist attacks. On that day, there were many rescuers that found themselves unable to utilize the land lines and also most of their cell phones, because there were anxious and frightened people who were jamming the line and overwhelming the systems trying to call. This made the most disastrous event in history much harder for victims and rescuers.
Fortunately, during this disaster there was an option that was not affected by the attacks and panics -- the Iridium network. They worked flawlessly and provided the necessary connections for reporters, emergency workers and all others that needed to make important calls. In addition, Iridium rental was made available to the city and emergency workers used the system during their time at the Washington D.C and New York sites, and also at the crash site in Pennsylvania. Thanks to Iridium and their network were people able to connect and save lives.
It took an event like this for this satellite phone to become alive. The company is not promoting this sat phones to jet-setting and international globetrotters anymore, instead they are focusing their marketing on relief workers, emergency workers, surveyors, construction workers, scientists, news reporters, engineers and many other occupants.
The defense department in the United States is the biggest user of these phones, because they provide the necessary communication to the United States service members whenever they travel around the globe in military operations. You will also be able to find these phones being used in applications where no other communication service is available such as oil-rigs, ice packs, desert expansions and polar regions.
This satellite phone is expanding frontiers and creating opportunities for all those that are beyond civilization’s fringes. If you want to be sure that you have a dependable phone service wherever you are, you need Iridium.
