WASHINGTON-After five years of research and development, and three tries on the keypad, the inaugural call on American Mobile Satellite Corp.’s SkyCell satellite telephone service was made Jan. 24 between a Red Cross flood-disaster site in Harrisburg, Pa., and Washington, D.C.
“Five years ago, I stood at this same podium in this same room to announce that we had $140 million in funding to construct a Hughes satellite, Mitsubishi subscriber equipment and Westinghouse ground-station terminals,” said Brian Pemberton, AMSC’s president and chief executive officer. “We have delivered on the promise.”
Also taking part in the ceremony was Vice President Al Gore, who congratulated Pemberton and AMSC on their accomplishments via a SkyCell phone patch from the White House. Federal Communications Commissioner Susan Ness added that she was “impressed with the vision of U.S. satellite communications companies” and that the introduction of new mobile services “will increase competition and benefit consumers.”
AMSC was licensed by the FCC in 1989 to provide voice, data, fax and dispatch services via satellite to the U.S. market, which includes the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and 200 miles of U.S. coastal waters. An FCC ruling adopted Jan. 19 allows the company to provide international service as well. As a result, AMSC plans to pursue the Mexican and Latin American markets; in addition, its partnership with Canadian firm, TMI Communications, will allow AMSC to cover that market. TMI’s satellite, a twin of the AMSC-1 bird, is expected to launch April 22.
Pemberton would not release any revenue projections for this year, saying only that the current one-satellite system can serve 400,000 subscribers, and that AMSC would like to see at least 40 percent of the system in use by year’s end. Pemberton estimated that AMSC service to maritime users would constitute 20 percent of its revenues this year.
According to Nick Magliato, AMSC’s director of land-mobile distribution, current target markets for SkyCell include public safety, emergency preparedness (including the Federal Emergency Management Agency), the oil pipeline industry and telephone subscribers in remote, unserved areas.
AMSC also is targeting satellite newsgathering organizations; Magliato said every major broadcasting network is using SkyCell as a backup or primary communications tool, with CBS leading the pack with 12 units.
While AMSC continues to market its service and equipment with an in-house sales force, it has signed up 200 land-mobile distributors nationwide to sell the interconnectable satphones, which will compete with other such proprietary systems from Motorola Inc., E. F. Johnson Co. and Uniden Corp.
The company thought most of its business would be west of the Mississippi, but distributors on the East Coast are embracing the technology as well, especially for sales to regional trucking companies.
The transportable satphone units, made by Mitsubishi with two different handsets, cost about $2,500, much like cellular phones did in their infancy. The units feature two hours of talk time and eight hours of standby.
Pricing plans for Region 1, which covers most of North America, varies according to services and between individual and commercial users. The most advantageous plan appears to be that configured for business users.
While business users pay a bit more for monthly access charges, they usually gain more than 70 free minutes per month, up to 200 minutes; and they pay no extra access charges for data, fax and voice-mail service.
As of last week, more than 770 subscribers were beta testing parts of AMSC’s planned land-mobile, fixed, aeronautical and maritime services. Many of the 28-pound transportable satellite units have been dispatched to global disaster areas, including flood sites in New York and in Pennsylvania plus to the site of the recent airline crash in Colombia.
In Washington state, an interagency dispatch test is being conducted by members of the National Guard, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Highway Patrol and various local law-enforcement entities that would enable some 10,000 satphones to operate on one network, breakouts of which could be defined with custom software and a personal computer. The dispatch service will go commercial this summer at an additional $70 per month.
“We look forward to being here three years from now to announce the next generation of satellite services,” Pemberton concluded. The proposed system has five times the capacity of today’s AMSC-1 orbiter, and it will provide service from a handheld unit directly to the satellite. A go/no go decision will be made later this year.
