File:Iridium_Satellite_Phone.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
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- Category:Satellite telephony
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- Satellite phones
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Encyclopedic overview
An Iridium satellite phone, late 1990s
A satellite phone (also called a satellite telephone or satphone) is a type of mobile phone that connects to the public switched telephone network through orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites. They function in areas without terrestrial network coverage but require line-of-sight to a satellite. Most support voice, text, and low-bandwidth data services.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “satellite phone” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.