Iridium, Motorola Inc’s plan for a global mobile telephone system, has hit a setback on its plan to offer a joint service with terrestrial cellular operators, with news that the International Maritime Satellite Organisation is proposing the same thing. Iridium first announced that it wanted to offer a dual-mode service at the start of the year, the idea being that handsets would operate as regular cellular phones when in range, and would use the global satellite system when out of it. Now however, Inmarsat says it is pressing ahead full steam with its competing Inmarsat-P system, and that it too wants to offer a dual-mode service. Indeed, of the two systems, Inmarsat seems to be in a better position to sign up cellular operators: it is run as a 65-country co-operative, and many of its members are responsible for the operation of their countries’ cellular systems. In what looks like a direct snub, Inmarsat has also not responded to Iridium’s proposal to offer capacity for Inmarsat’s maritime and aeronautical services on its satellite network, saying that this was not discussed at the meeting where Inmarsat-P was given the go-ahead. Quite where this latest development will leave Iridium remains to be seen, but recent months have already seen it scaling down its operations. In August, it announced that it was cutting the costs of the system by going with more powerful satellites, enabling it to reduce the number from 77 to 66. By lessening the chances of finding cellular partners, Inmarset seems to have added to its problems further. Inmarsat’s decision was made at its Council meeting in London. The Council unanimously agreed that Inmarsat-P is technically feasible, and a promising business opportunity for the organisation; it now intends to introduce the service commercially by 1998 to 2000. While the plan has now been given the official green light, there are still several issues to be sorted out, including the global satellite system configuration and the necessary ground network. Inmarsat’s Council has called for these issues to be investigated, thus allowing its owners to take an investment decision by July of next year. In particular, it is to look at the question of whether the system can be best introduced using geostationery satellite systems, intermediate circular orbiting systems, or low earth orbit systems.
