Spectrum considerations for satellite based personal communication systems

The technological advances in mobile satellite systems (MSS) have brought the world to the threshold of realization of the ultimate in personal wireless communications-the hand-held satellite telephone-that could keep us in touch with each other, any time, any where, whenever needed. Inmarsat, the pioneering mobile satellite service organization providing services all across the globe, has been engaged in this evolutionary process of developing increasingly smaller mobile earth stations in keeping with the service demands. Satellite based personal communication services are basically an integral part of MSS and could be provided through non-geostationary satellite orbit mobile satellites in the service link spectrum allocated to MSS. Feederlinks to MSS satellites are generally accommodated in the spectrum allocated to FSS. The paper discusses various technical and regulatory aspects associated with the selection of frequency spectrum for a satellite based PCS system and identifies some possible solutions