The mass-consumer cellular markets may be familiar with industry products such as the Apple iPhone and the BlackBerry, but AT&T, one of the largest cellular services in the United States, has partnered with satellite company TerreStar for a different reason — to bring a consumer-friendly cellular handset to the public sector, government, emergency services and maritime markets.
    The cooperative deal, announced Sept. 30, will give birth to the Genus handset, a BlackBerry-esque satellite-cellular hybrid handset, saw its debut at the 2009 International Association of Cheifs of Police conference in October.
    TerreStar CEO Jeff Epstein told Offshore Communications e-daily that there is a reason the handset is being unveiled at a niche event. “Public safety and the public sector in general, which includes federal, state and local governments, are our top target market segments with the greatest amount of interest in this service right now,” he said. “There are other areas — maritime and enterprise markets which will soon follow after this handset enters the emergency services, homeland security and disaster management markets.”
    The Genus, which Epstein describes as “familiar 3G wireless connectivity with satellite capability at your hip,” is being offered with its integrated chipset for $799. The service will be prices at $24.99 per month, with voice calls at a rate of 65 cents per minute and SMS text messaging at 40 cents per message. Data usage is priced at $5 per megabyte. Subscription to these satellite solutions requires qualified AT&T’s wireless voice and data plans, much like the iPhone. The satellite service, which acts as a backup when a terrestrial connection is not available, will be provided by the TerreStar-1 satellite, launched in July.
    AT&T Vice President of Mobility Chris Hill said his company has been in talks with TerreStar to release a satellite-cellular product to these markets for two years. “This partnership announcement is the culmination of a 24-plus-month conversation with Terrestar. We had been interested in what TerreStar was doing for quite some time and we developed significant interest in terms filling in the public sector and enterprise niche within the portfolio of services we provide across our customer segments. That culminated into our first roaming agreement that we reached in August 2008, followed by the announcement of TerreStar-1 being placed into orbit in July.     We had previously reached roaming agreements and cooperation on how we were going to pass traffic back and forth. The big ‘So what?’ about this announcement is really about what the offer will look like and activating the AT&T sales channels across our multiple customer segments,” he said.
    TerreStar’s smartphone project has developed over the last year. The company worked with several partners to create a market-friendly product: Elektrobit was the Genus’ reference designer; BroadSoft’s BroadWorks Voice-over-IP (VoIP) application was tapped to power the new phone, and Qualcomm designed the chipset.
    In June TerreStar CTO Dennis Matheson discussed the importance of TerreStar-1’s massive architecture with Satellite News. “In this particular case, we knew how the terminals that were made before the consumer-level terminals performed. We decided that we had to design the satellite to talk to the small handheld terminals that are out there or will be out there. Therefore, development led to a larger satellite, a larger reflector and more power on the satellite. So it was kind of a reverse view of how to — from an overall systems design approach — deliver the service that we are going to be delivering,” he said.
    In 2008, Jani Lyrintzis, director of wireless solutions for Elektrobit , gave Satellite News an early look into one of the major challenges of developing the satellite-terrestrial connectivity module, a portable device that enables ubiquitous data communications using satellite or terrestrial networks. “If you look at what is available today in the satellite space, it is very old technology with very low data rates and bandwidth, typically a couple of kilobits, and this device provides hundreds of kilobits of data rates. With this device, you can bring Internet into your vehicle — whether it’s a car or boat or for use in the public safety domain on [land mobile radios] or as a consumer device. You can have this module in your pocket and have a Bluetooth connection to your regular cell phone to make it a satellite phone,” said Lyrintzis, who added that despite the consumer-friend look of the unit, the biggest selling point will be its ubiquitous connectivity aspect.
    With the trials behind them, TerreStar and AT&T can focus on deploying the service and hitting the target customers. Epstein said he is excited that the handset is ready to go. “We’re not making tens or hundreds, we’re making thousands for a massive launch. After we process calls during next week’s demo at the [International Association of Chiefs of Police] conference we’re ready to go for a general launch in the first quarter of 2010. We think this is going to fit a very good area and a good market for both TerreStar and AT&T,” he said.
    Hill said that AT&T also is confident in the future of the Genus handset. “We think this is going to be a device that our customers use on a daily basis, and that is important. I think we’re going to see a lot of interest from people who purchased satellite-only handsets or may not have been able to afford a satellite service. My satellite phone sits in my office collecting dust. I’d have to read the manual to remember how to place a call on it — assuming that I’m even at my office when the instance occurred where I would have to use it. We’re seeing a lot of interest from customers in our target markets because of that exact same scenario,” he said.