Bencredible

This was just awesome! Around 200 people for a private Rick Springfield concert. His new song “Venus in Overdrive” was really, really good. Both Cariann and I were rockin’ out!

I’m a bit surprised the explosions were not larger than they were, but we had only Minnesota legal fireworks in there which are pretty crappy.  What you don’t see in this video is that about 10 minutes later as it was still burning some more fireworks ignited in the bag. Freaking awesome!

The promise of satellite phones to replace cellular phones has been around for years and has never come to fruition. There are many issues with satellite phones that make the cellular network a better idea, the biggest of which is capacity. On a cell network all I need to do is add an additional tower and I add a bunch of capacity. With satellite when I run out of capacity, I’m screwed.

Nevertheless I still believe that satellite telecom has its place and could eventually overtake terrestrial cell towers. Satellite has a huge advantage over cell which is coverage. One satellite can cover an entire continent whereas one cell tower only covers around 20 miles or so. I could drive coast to coast with a Satellite phone, but not with a cell phone.

How many users need to drive coast to coast? Not very many. But you may notice that your service varies greatly even in your own city as you drive around and bounce from tower to tower. This is where satellite phone service can revolutionize mobile phone service. No matter where you go you would always have full bars, so long as you never go indoors.

So why don’t we have satellite phones everywhere today? Well, several reasons. The phones are large and bulky. The antennae is amazingly huge and ugly. The cost is extremely high to make a single phone call. The devices don’t work indoors. It just is not as refined a technology as cellular. At this point satellite won’t be a viable option for, well, much of anyone.

Enter TerreStar.

TerreStar is getting ready to launch their next generation satellite phone network. Much like how the Globalstar network was designed, the TerreStar network is not just satellite but a combination of satellite and cellular. In the US if you have AT&T service the phone will connect to that and make the call there. If you’re out of AT&T range or need a little love the TerreStar phone will connect to the satellite network. This is all great, but as I mentioned Globalstar already did this (with Verizon rather than AT&T.) Where TerreStar differs is that their phone looks like any other smartphone. No huge ugly antennae.

Will this service trump current cellular service?  At first, no. Satellite needs to be priced properly and add enough advantage to overtake cellular. As the service is proven it could supplement traditional cell service. If TerreStar is able to find a way to penetrate buildings, we could have a complete replacement to cellular on the horizon here. Just as people moved from telegraph to corded phones then to wireless phones and on to cell phones, it is completely possible they will move from cell phones to satellite phones.

That’s not what excites me though. Imagine a global network in which Apple can control the entire experience. The device works anywhere on  the planet except the poles. Indoors, outdoors. No roaming, no long distance. A universal smartphone, an iPhone, that works anywhere on the device manufacturers terms. The only thing missing is the bandwidth which as I understand it is around 600Kbps. Very fast for satellite but a far cry from the 7.2Mbps next generation network AT&T is installing.

It is possible we’re witnessing a complete revolution in wireless phone technology. How cool is that?