Introduction to GlobalstarTM [satellite communication system]

A new communications tool-the hand-held satellite telephone-will be available to business people before the turn of the century. At about the same time, affordable, basic telephony-through fixed-site satellite telephones-will be available for the first time to millions of citizens of developing economies. Globalstar will usher in both. Globalstar is a low-Earth-orbiting (LEO) satellite-based digital telecommunications system that will offer wireless telephone and other telecommunications services worldwide beginning in 1999. Globalstar will provide low-cost, high quality telephony and other digital telecommunications services such as data transmission, paging, facsimile and position location to areas currently under served or not served by existing wireline and cellular telecommunications systems