Nov 29 1982
From The Space Library
NASA went before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to ask for a market test of a "land mobile satellite service" to complement cellular systems and other mobile arrangements now being planned or in use. NASA asked the FCC to reserve frequencies, for commercial companies offering to establish communications by satellite to rural America via portable radiotelephones that could switch calls between vehicles and local telephone networks. Present "cellular radio" systems were land-based, difficult to install in remote areas amid mountains and other barriers.
The FCC had denied a similar NASA request last year but would not comment on the new request. NASA said that other nations were developing mobile satellite communications services on frequencies provided by the 1979 World Administrative Radio Conference; if the FCC failed to provide the United States with frequencies, it could jeopardize its leadership "in satellite communications and in mobile communications equipment." The application said that mobile systems in the United States had been "available only through terrestrial facilities... limited in range" and restricted mostly to urban areas. A satellite system could include up to 288,000 rural subscribers by 1990, NASA said. W Post, Nov 30/82, C-7)
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