Mobile satellite communication systems. A competitive scenario for new systems and services

A variety of mobile satellite communication systems is available for commercial use while others are going to be introduced on the market in the near future. All that in a competitive communication scenario in which mobile systems based on ground and global S-PCNs (satellite personal communication networks) are becoming more and more aggressive with several systems announced and some of them being implemented. The authors focus on existing mobile satellite systems and their peculiarities, in terms of coverage and connectivity with terrestrial networks and of expected performance. Services already offered by these systems are also outlined. The question is how these systems can be competitive and will survive in the future and which improvements they will need in order to keep the edge for particular niche market. Rather than giving a mere comparison of technical performance of these systems, they present the achievements of the large scale demonstration currently in progress in Europe with the PRODAT system, developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). On the basis of the user reaction noticed during the demonstration, they focus on the winning factors and on a perspective to get mobile satellite systems attractive beyond the end of this century