Iridium has launched satellite communications Iridium is a satellite telecommunications system consisting of 66 satellites which ensure worldwide signal coverage to enable satellite telephoning with mobile phones or pagers anywhere on Earth. On September 23, 1998, after eleven years of project preparation and development, Iridium has launched a satellite telecommunications system-its great project which is for now for a limited number of users. Select individuals, corporations and state institutions were distributed telephones in order to optimize the entire system and tune up the quality. The system was completely operationalized on November 1, 1998, but the system still awaits its first commercial users. You too will soon have the chance to become one of them thanks to EuroTel which has already closed a roaming contract with Iridium. In addition, talks are currently underway between Iridium Communication Germany (under whose "wings" the Czech Republic falls) and ETÚ about the granting of a licence and on the homologation of satellite telephones which will make the satellite portion of the services available even in the Czech Republic. The granting of the licence is planned for the end of this year. If you too decide on the satellite telecommunications system, it will provide you with not only unlimited worldwide usage, but also the chance to buy a telephone anywhere in the world since Iridium satellite telephones should be the first commercial products to meet the International Telecommunications Union's specifications. This would make it possible to transport satellite telephones between the various countries without customs difficulties. If you are interested in this worldwide novelty, you'll have the chance to choose one of three of Iridium's "service packages"-GSM Homed Service Package, Iridium + 8816a + 8817 Homed Service Package and World Page. While saving your current SIM card and telephone number, the GSM Homed Service Package will offer you worldwide roaming which, in connection to satellite calls, will give you 100% availability. From your GSM services provider, i.e. from EuroTel, you will receive your regular bill which will include Iridium services billing. Iridium +8816 Homed Service Package. If you buy this "service package," your telephone number will start with +8816-a number specifying the telephone dialing code of some "country" created by Iridium. Using this number, you will be able to sign on to any local cellular network and make use of its price offers. Iridium +8817 Homed Service Package will allow you to maximally take advantage of the advantages that result from using satellite communications. When you call telephone numbers beginning with +8817, you will considerably save on calling fees. Of course, only if you are the type of user who for the most part accepts calls from your colleagues and clients and who works at a location when there is no cellular signal and who also doesn't care that the telephone with the +8817 pre-dialing code cannot be used beyond the borders of the country in which the telephone was purchased. These telephones can be sold only by service partners, of which there are currently more than 128, and who will also send a bill for the services you utilize (talks are still underway between Iridium and EuroTel about service partnership). World Page is proof that Iridium is not limited to mere classical communications. World Page will offer you global paging to make you reachable even in building where neither the GSM nor the Iridium signal can reach. As part of the Global Notification Service, you will also have access to the "follow-me" service which will forward all your text messages from your telephone to a pager, including notices that voice messages have been accepted in voice mail. To take advantage of satellite telephoning, you will soon be able to buy or lease satellite telephones from EuroTel as part of the expanded RENT service. Iridium telephones, which are certified for operation in the United States and Europe (Kyocera telephones and pagers for operation in Japan, as well), are produced in Motorola and Kyocera plants with a capacity of more than 100,000 telephones for the year 1998. The telephones are made ready for communication not only in the satellite network, but also in one or more of the norms of existing cellular networks. The Iridium system is becoming the next level of modern mobile communications. It is anticipated that the total number of mobile satellite communications users (including other satellite systems: Inmarst, Globalstar, ICO and others) will reach 12 million in the year 2002. It is expected that satellite communications will take the path like the GSM system, where it in time will develop the services, miniaturize the telephones and, thanks to the competitive environment, where the value of the provided services will grow as their cost declines.