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The Soon Coming Judgment Of God Upon America and How To Escape It 495
provides global service, there are large blind spots over the Polar Regions.
In February of 2000 Globalstar began offering service of the second constellation of
Satellites providing satellite phone coverage of the entire earth. In 2003 Globalstar began
offering simplex data services. With “one-way satellite data service” customer are able to “track
mobile assets -- such as vehicles and marine vessels -- using GPS or other location-based
software.” It is also possible to monitor fixed assets as well and both send information to and
receive information from these assets.
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In 2004 Globalstar further increase services by offering
Satellite Fax services. The Globalstar constellation consists of 48 LEO satellites orbiting the
earth at approximately twice the height of the Iridium constellation. Iridium operates from an
orbit of approximately 485 miles, Orbomm at 497 miles and Globalstar operates at
approximately 900 miles. The orbits of GEO satellites are much higher than LEO satellites; they
orbit at approximately 22,245 miles above the earth.
These three LEO satellite constellations “offer significant advantages over
Geosynchronous (GEO) systems for the delivery of mobile satellite services.” The advantage
gained is enhanced service quality to low-power mobile equipment both hand-held and vehicle-
mounted.
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The Iridium, Orbcomm and Globalstar satellite constellations would also work well
with other low-power technologies such as RFID implantable biochips. In fact, on December 15,
2004, Orbcomm announced that it had executed an agreement with the VeriChip Corporation to
provide satellite services for the VeriChip implantable RFID microchip.
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Each of these three companies has contracts with branches of the U.S. government.
Iridium’s largest customer is the U.S. Department of Defense. The DoD pays Iridium $72
million for a year of unlimited airtime for 20,000 government workers. Iridium provides the DoD
mobile phone, data and paging capabilities.
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DoD is paying dearly for its phones based on the
minutes used as reported in Nation Defense magazine. In 2001 the rate came to $117 per minute,
in 2002 $11.90 per minute and 2003 $4.22 per minute. The 2003 rate is an estimate based on
January and February usage.
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Obcomm announced in June of 2004 that it was “awarded a contract by the U.S. Coast
Guard (USCG) to develop and supply Automatic Identification System (AIS) capability over the
ORBCOMM satellite network.” The “AIS is a shipboard broadcast system that transmits a
vessel’s identification and position to aid navigation and improve maritime safety.”
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In 2003 “NASA awarded a contract to…Globalstar to develop an Internet protocol that
would make a network easy to transport and would allow users to stay connected from multiple
platforms on land, at sea or in the air.” Globalstar has a multiple 8-channel modem. This is
basically equivalent to a phone-line 56K modem.
1626
All three of these global satellite constellations went bankrupt. Iridium filed bankruptcy
after only ten months of operation in August of 1999. Globalstar lasted about two years before
they filed in early 2002 and Orbcomm filed in September of 2000. Iridium investors and
creditors lost nearly $5 billion when Iridium was sold for $25 million. A month later the DoD
awarded the new company Iridium USA a $72 million contract that was almost three times the
purchase price. Globalstar investors and creditors lost almost $4 billion when it was sold for $43
million; although creditors retained 18.5% ownership.
Several class action lawsuits were filed on behalf of the stockholders of both Iridium and
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