Bob; This is a good summary, but I'd like to add a few additional comments. Those who plan to attend the Trawler Fest in Melbourne FL. can get a more through review in the E-MAIL FOR CRUISERS seminar presented by the my wife "the Admirable" and myself. <snip> > Globalstar is still in business, but is labeled "financially troubled" > in the financial press. Its service covers the coastal areas of the USA > with a data access at a rate of 9600 bps. <snip> > Rates in June 2001 were about $1.20 per minute. Globalstar rates are competitive with "Global" systems such as Iridium and Inmarsat, however since they can't relay satellite to satellite they doesn't provide "global" coverage. They are less competitive with the "Continental" and "Metropolitan" systems. I prefer Iridium as my ultimate back-up phone/data capability. It provides global phone coverage and expensive Internet access if I get desperate. > The article briefly discusses cell phone access. Most people find that > cell phones work reasonably well in urban areas, with speeds of > 9600-19,200 bps. Off shore and remote coverage can be spotty and > expensive for those who have roaming charges. Several higher speed > metropolitan networks, like Ricochet, have failed or are failing. Talk > of "Second Generation", 2.5G, and "Third Generation" wireless networks > is that, mostly talk. The roll-out of these advanced networks is in > pilot or trial stages in a few cities, but the general deployment will > be focused on urban areas and will take a few years. Lots of $$$ > involved. My research shows that AT&T wireless is leading the charge towards 2.5G wireless (i.e. between second generation "2G" and third genertion "3G"). AT&T is converting to GSM and incorporating general packet radio service (GPRS). AT&T has already rolled out GSM/GPRS in several cities including Seattle, Portland, Detroit and much of Florida, including Melbourne BTW. Other US carriers plan to upgrade to 2.5G or CDMA2000 starting in 2002. AT&T promises to convert their entire network to GSM/GPRS by the end of 2002. GPRS provides a theoretical throughput of 171.2Kbps but the estimated actual throughput of up to 44Kbps which compares to the Theoretical and actual throughput of GSM and CDPD of 14.4Kbps and 9.6Kbps. From GPRS it is a much easier upgrade to EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution) which has a theoretical throughput of 384Kbps with an estimated actual throughput of up to 70Kbps. AT&T has promised EDGE by the end of 2003. 3G/UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone System) will provide a theoretical throughput of 384Kbps to 2MB and an estimated actual throughput of up to 100Kbps. For the inland and coastal cruisers, I think 2.5G and 3G wireless will offer a cost effective, although intermittent solution. Especially since most cruisers will have a wireless phone onboard anyway. Metricom, the owners of Ricochet, declaired bankruptcy in April and was shut down in August, however the Ricochet assets and intellectual property were purchased by Aerie Networks for $8.25M which intends to reestablish the service. http://www.aerienetworks.com/pf_rico.htm Ricochet data rate is 128Kbps. The cost was $300 for a modem and $80/month for service. Another route is Blackberry. Blackberry is unique in that it allows you to access corporate e-mail despite firewalls. Current Blackberry systems use analog frequencies but unfortunately do not share analog cellphone infrastructure. They allow communication at 9600bps and coverage is comparable to analog cell phones (Cingular coverage http://www.bellsouthwd.com/covapp/start.html Motient coverage http://www.motient.com/find/national.asp). Since the key to remaining competitive is spreading the infrastructure cost over a large subscriber base. Next generation Blackberry systems will utilize 2.5G and 3G wireless Technology. Blackberry has already built GSM/GPRS and CDMA based devices for Europe. However, IMHO the stand-alone devices will have difficulty competing with integrated wireless phones which can be used directly or interface to PDA/laptops. For example Blackberry 950 & 857 retail for $399 & $499 respectively (see http://www.blackberry.net/purchase/pricing/us/bbee.shtml) compared to AT&T CDPD phones at $9.99 and $79.99 http://www.attws.com/personal/ps/select_equipment.jhtml?_requestid=41396. Blackberry monthly service is $50/month for unlimited e-mail while AT&T charges an additional $6.99/mo over the phone service charge for unlimited e-mail and no e-mail roaming charges on a CDPD phone. > KVH, the stabilized antenna company, are now selling a DirecPC sat dish > which receives the internet access provided by DirecTV for about $6,000, > (plus antenna). Their uplink is slow, being a land-line for dockside > moorage, cell phone or sat phone for wireless. The costs are kind of > high, but the download speeds are good. Look at their web site > www.kvh.com. > > DirecTV is now selling a two-way satellite system for land-use. This > means that you don't need a land-line for the uplink. Speeds quoted are > 400 kbps downlink and 128 kbps uplink. Unfortunately, the antenna > be installed by a licensed installer (since it is a transmitter) and > they don't install on boats. I have not yet heard of anyone using this > system for boats or RVs, but expect that some have tried. This system, > Direcway, is sold through RadioShack. There isn't much information these > days on the www.directv.com site on two-way, the DSL service having > taken up the corporate interest (as well as their merger with Echostar). The two way Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite systems currently only offer fixed-fixed service. This means it is only available for fixed installations on stationary platforms. Hughes is working on incorporating fixed-mobile service. This means that the transceiver can move but only operate while stationary. Fixed-mobile service was scheduled for December 2001, but they are behind schedule and hope to release it in January 2002. Mobile-mobile service is promised in the first or second quarter of 2002. According to the Starband installation FAC http://www.starband.com/faq/install.htm#rv, Starband currently only offers fixed-fixed service. KVH is offering satellite down link and landline or wireless uplink. Motosat http://www.motosat.com is currently offering two-way fixed-mobile service and will offer mobile-mobile service as soon as it becomes available. Motosat told be they are add gyros to their stabilization to make it usable on a boat. > We all keep waiting for Teledesic to launch, but the launch date keeps > being pushed out. It won't be cheap, however. Teledesic's frequency allocation will expire in 2005 if they do not start service by then. Teledesic may be able to get an extension, but only if they have made significant progress. Teledesic will have an interesting problem. In densely populated areas they will not be able to meet all their demand, while in sparsely populated areas (i.e. open ocean areas) they will have excess capacity. I expect Teledesic to utilize a multi-tier pricing scheme to encourage use in sparsely populated areas and discourage use in densely populated areas. It could end up that Teledesic could be reasonable priced in remote areas. The big question with Teledesic is what the gound station requirements will be. The last design I saw was a high gain dish which has to track the satellites as they flew overhead at 26,000 mph. This might be challenging ($) on a boat. > Bigger boats have Inmarsat systems of several flavors, but the > technology is rather old and the bandwidth cost is high. > For heavy users, Inmarsat is competitive with Iridium (the only Global alternative), but the price of admission is very high. > The Admirable and I will present additional information on communications plus tricks and tips to save on connection charges associated with accessing e-mail and web pages while cruising at Trawler Fest in Melbourne. Communicatively; Mike and Ruth Schooley