Originally Posted by
ScottC
Refarming the spectrum currently used by a satellite provider IS the same is "going away". You can't take away their assigned and in-use spectrum and keep them in business at the same time.
Of course you can't operate a terrestrial network while concurrently bombarding the same frequency from space. But that also isn't what I said. I said "much of the spectrum will be refarmed for terrestrial purposes"
What you bring up is currently unused spectrum, which doesn't apply to any of the discussion of equipment we're having here.
Also not true.
but the systems in use today will not change.
That is ridiculous, they already are changing.
Don't try and scare people into thinking their investment in a satellite phone is worthless because of theoretical future scenarios. The two systems I recommended (Iridium and Inmarsat) are going to be around for a long time. And you'll notice that I did not recommend Globalstar.
This is not theoretical and I still didn't say they're going away.
Large contiguous blocks of spectrum are very valuable. Look at the evolution in capacity of the 850mhz band from the FDMA analog days to the present. The same spectrum being used in much the same way today on either WCDMA/HSPA or LTE yields enormous capacity on the same spectrum that once accommodated only a handful of concurrent calls. But, if you go into the Verizon store and try to activate your old StarTAC 7797 you're going to be out of luck.
The same efficiencies can be realized with satellite phones, except there isn't the same demand to be unlocked. It just allows, as GlobalStar proposes to consolidate their MSS traffic. The concession that permits Dish to refarm their newly acquired spectrum is seen to have quadrupled their $3B investment. I don't believe for a second that the Iridium and Inmarsat spectrum is sacrosanct. And again Inmarsat both contemplated terrestrial use of their spectrum, negotiated with Dish and rebanded themselves to accommodate LightSquared.
Every satellite platform has at some point been modernized, refarmed and rebanded what would make MSS different?
I would not as an individual invest in this type of hardware today. That is my opinion and I have explained why. There is no reconciling the amount of spectrum these companies possess with their subscriber bases. What do you recall Phil Falcone's intentions for Inmarsat were?