OT Iridium (Was: Re: classiccmp-digest V1 #615)

From: Mark Tapley <mtapley_at_swri.edu>
Date: Thu May 31 08:48:22 2001

Jason McBrien said:

>...went to were the American History Museum and the Air and Space
>museum. Both had special exhibits on information processing, and among the
>highlights are:
>
...
>- -Processor modules from the Iridium (defunct) system
...

Not yet, at any rate. My dad just got a phone from Motorola. Size of an old
(70's) handy-talky, more or less. After some trouble figuring out the
registration, dialing sequence, etc., he managed to phone home with it
(Yes, his initials are BT - no Steven Spielberg puns, please) and there was
a ~ 0.5 second delay between his lips moving and the sound coming out of
the home phone (he was standing on the balcony at the time). Apparently DOD
paid for the system and, to offset part of their cost, is marketing the
hand units (through Worldcom) to the few customers who need communications
where cell phones don't yet go. (Dad's going sailing in the North Sea, then
to a launch site in the Ukraine.) I'm rambling - anyway, Iridium was still
up, as of Sunday night.
                                                - Mark
Received on Thu May 31 2001 - 08:48:22 BST