Californian aerospace company TRW has been granted a European patent on its
Odyssey satellite cellphone system (EP 648 027). The satellite network is in
direct competition with Motorola’s Iridium system. Iridium will eventually need
66 low-flying satellites to guarantee that a phone on the ground can always
connect to at least one satellite. But TRW will use only six satellites, in a
higher, elliptical orbit.
While the Iridium handset must switch repeatedly between different
satellites, the Odyssey handset will usually connect with only one satellite
during a call, and will never have to switch to more than one other.
