Iridium 9500

Description

One of the earliest satellite phones, the Motorola produced Iridium 9500 was introduced in 1999 but suffered teething problems. Iridium Satellite LLC went bankrupt almost immediately but restarted operations in 2001 as Iridium Communications. Based out of Virginia, this communications system has been used extensively by the Department of Defense.

PRIMAL Assessment

The 9500 phone requires open line-of-sight to the open sky to make a satellite call, however from indoors it can use the GSM cell network using the optional cassette for a GSM SIM card. Even today the old Iridium satellite network is still the best for global coverage. The iPRIMAL network utilizes an encrypted link piped through this network.