Real road warriors use satellite phones

Six newspaper internships didn’t do it. Neither could a graduate degree in journalism, an academic fellowship, or jobs writing for marquee media outlets – including, of course, this one.

It took something considerably smaller to make me feel like a real reporter: a phone.

Not just any phone, but Qualcomm’s latest satellite phone, the GSP 1600, which uses the ubiquitous Globalstar Communications System. (Check out its coverage area to see just how pervasive it is.)

The first test call from the front porch of my house to my office via an orbiting satellite was hardly something to write home about. I opened the oversize antenna, tapped in the phone number, hit send and…there it was.

That barely noticeable time-delay. That crystal-clear reception that says, “This ain’t your run-of-the mill cell phone.” I was on a satellite. Live.

Suddenly, I was a war correspondent dodging gunfire in Afghanistan, sidestepping mines in Bosnia, filing my dispatches from the trenches. In my mind, I’d become the kind of reporter that my journalism professors had always expected me to be. I was the next Scud Stud. I was Christiane Amanpour’s worst nightmare.

What does my overactive imagination have to do with travel technology? Other than making it incredible fun to test a phone like the GSP 1600, not much. Go ahead, laugh at my delusions of Pulitzer prizes and six-figure advances on my war correspondent’s memoirs. But don’t try to take my phone away from me.

The Qualcomm portable is quite possibly one of the most significant wireless gadgets I’ve reviewed this past year. Only a few days after making that first call from outside my office, I made a call to the same destination – from Europe. The sound quality was identical, as was that exhilarating feeling of being a real newsman. All I needed was a good natural disaster to talk about, and my illusion would be complete.

It isn’t an exaggeration to say that this breed of mobile phone could very well represent the future of wireless communications. Dataquest predicts that more than 10 million people will use a satellite phone by 2003 – a large percentage, presumably, will be business travelers. Despite a troubled past – remember Iridium? – satellite phones seem to be catching on, if the experts are to be believed.

If all the satellite phones perform as well as the Qualcomm, the industry should easily reach that magic 10-million mark. Or exceed it. The gadget is capable of making three kinds of calls: digital, analog and satellite. It also includes a variety of features that travelers won’t want to go without, such as caller ID, voice mail, data transmission and digital facsimile.

Using the phone is no more difficult than making a conventional cellular call, except that you have to remember to go somewhere where the satellite can see you. I found this particularly difficult in Austria during one of the coldest months of the year. Once connected, the satellite stays with you so that if you’re in the habit of pacing, you don’t have to worry about losing the call.

Receiving calls present a similar obstacle. I felt reluctant to leave my satellite phone number with anyone I phoned, because in order to get the call, I had to wait under the satellite. Nothing will make you feel like a foreign correspondent more than having your fingers freeze to the plastic casing of your satellite phone.

I wasn’t too keen on the GSP 1600′s dimensions. At nearly one pound and 6.9 inches by 2.2 inches by 1.8 inches, this portable should have been called a semi-portable, because it reminded me more of those brick-sized cellular phones we used during the 80s. Another major inconvenience, and one of the biggest drawbacks of switching from cellular to satellite, was the fact that you can’t use the phone indoors. The device must always be able to “see” the satellite. I tried to cheat by standing next to a tall window, to no avail.

Maybe the most insurmountable challenge presented by the Qualcomm system is its price: $1,199, plus rates of up to $1.69 per minute, which doesn’t include long-distance charges. To me, that’s a little excessive.

“There will need to be a delicate balance between profit and real demand,” Louis Altman, the president of a wireless products retailer GlobaFone in Greenland, New Hampshire, recently told me. “And there will always be people who feel they cannot live without a phone stuck to their heads.”

But I imagine that rates will fall as the number of subscribers grows. And, truth be told, there’s a significant number of travelers for whom cost is no issue. They simply hand over the company credit card and depending on how creative their corporate accountants are, allow the shareholders or the taxpayers to foot the bill.

For them, I say run, don’t walk, to the nearest retailer and get your very own a satellite phone.

For the rest of us – me included – we may have to be a little more patient. While these wireless gadgets are incredibly useful, they’re not affordable yet. But when they are, they’ll change the way we communicate and significantly expand the places that we can do business.

I guess those delusions about being a real reporter can wait until then, too.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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