Stevens dedicates new tubes in Alaska!
Iridium Satellite LLC officially opened its new telemetry, tracking and command/control (TTAC) station in Fairbanks, Alaska…in a move to provide additional layers of redundancy, flexibility and reliability for its global mobile satellite communication network.
U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens was the guest speaker at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Fairbanks ground station. “On behalf of all Alaskans, I’d like to thank Iridium for its commitment to Alaska,” Stevens said. “Over the last eight years, satellite communications have become a lifeline for our state. Our first responders, commercial fishermen in Dutch harbor, oil and gas workers in the remote north, and bush pilots flying across our state rely upon this system. This new ground station will ensure satellite communications services are available when needed.”
Iridium CEO, Dan Colussy said, “As we saw with Hurricane Katrina and the September 11 terrorist attacks, the nation needs robust and dependable communication networks capable of operating uninterrupted during major disasters.”
During both events, those networks failed and were useless! We know FEMA still isn’t capable of responding as needed. Are we supposed to believe that communications systems have become robust enough to serve emergency needs on this scale?
You don’t understand… it doesn’t matter if the systems work, it matters that they were built in Alaska. Well, at least to Stevens and the Alaskans, anyway.
Isn’t Iridium the company that botched the sat phone market, anyway?
Satellite communications isn’t something you dump a whole lot of stuff into, it isn’t a truck. It’s a series of carrier pidgeons!!!!
I think Iridium is the company that bought the satellites after Motarola botched the phone market.
Iridium spent an enormous amount of money launching they satellite network, and after almost going bankrupt, they were planning on deorbiting them a few years ago. But then the government stepped in and has essentially kept them in existence ever since. The military uses Iridium phones quite a bit… I’m sure other agencies do as well.
Now that there are additional layers of redundancy, can we get rid of Senator Stevens?
Why would anyone in Alaska want to get rid of someone smart enough to get this pork in his state?
Shaw cable systems in Western Canada has been running an add compaign for months now featuring giant tubes running into homes delivering internet content. Their commentators appear inside these tubes. Seems to be exactly what Ted is talking about.
Please stop packing the senators musket with the “tubes” references.
Jokes over
SWANsat to Turn Earth into Wi-Fi Hotspot
Imagine a series of at least three geosynchronous orbital satellites providing wireless Internet access to the entire world. That’s exactly what a project called SWANsat or Super-Wide Area Network Satellite plans to do by the year 2011. They intend to be a global broadband Internet service provider that can facilitate up to 600 million connections per satellite. All you need is a handheld mobile device to connect to the system.
The system is being designed by a collective of inventors, builders, GPS and Iridium satellite owners including the CEO of Western Digital. Many more companies and individuals are also driving the SWANsat project including a UN task force.