4 cell cos in talks with Thuraya for sat link.

Byline: George Cherian

: Very soon, you could be sitting in a place as remote as the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and still be able to call up your uncle in Houston on your cellular phone.

At least four cellular operators in India are testing the satellite-based mobile telephone services of Thuraya, a UAE-based company, and within months, service providers such as Bharti, Hutchison, Escotel and Spice may be offering this facility to subscribers.

Subscribers will be able to access Thuraya's mobile satellite system through service providers, who are GSM network companies. Thuraya would, in fact, complement GSM networks, allowing subscribers to remain connected to their mobile networks, and access Thuraya's system whenever their preferred network is out of reach.

However, subscribers opting for satellite-based telephone services, would have to acquire Thuraya's dual mode handsets that are a lot more expensive than ordinary GSM or CDMA handsets.

Still, they would be a lot cheaper than the handsets that were sold by Iridium - a US satellite telephone company that has now gone bankrupt - in India about three years ago.

Iridium's handsets sold at Rs 99,000 while talk time rates were as high as Rs 150 per minute. Also, the Thuraya handset weighs just 220 grams, a lot lighter than those Iridium was offering subscribers.