Iridium has applied for another spectrum of 3.1MHz to meet Phone Number List its growing demand of about 1,000 new subscribers per month. Satellite phones are expensive and costly to operate, but yet it serves the purpose in communication where there is no other way of communicating. A satellite phone, often called 'satphone', is a mobile telephone Phone Number List system, that communicates directly with the orbiting communication satellites and depending on the network architecture, the coverage may be global, or only for specific regions. These types of phones generally operates with the low orbiting satellites (LEOs), which is believed to provide Phone Number List a wider coverage and better communication clarity.

The size of a satellite phone is comparable to Phone Number List the size and weight of the mobile phones that were used in the late 1980s or early 1990s and has a large retractable antenna. The phone equipment itself is known as a terminal. The main difference between a satellite phone and that of a cellular mobile phone is that, while you communicate with the Phone Number List nearest base station in case of a cellular phone, a satellite phone communicates with Phone Number List the nearest satellite. This type of satphone connections do not depend upon any network.

Some of this communication technique covers Phone Number List a large area, with the help of multiple low orbiting satellites, relaying the signals from one to the other in order to connect you to the destination that you wish to be connected. Some of the satellite phones use satellites in geostationary orbit, maintaining almost total global coverage Phone Number List operating between three to four such satellites, thus reducing cost. It is important to note that geostationary orbiting satellites are placed at about 22,000 to 30,000 miles above the Earth. The LEOs, as the name signifies, are much lower in space from the Earth, 400 to 700 miles, and as Phone Number List such, a single satellite has limited coverage.