No subject


Tue Aug 26 14:49:35 CEST 2008


market that is considerably less crowded than the GSM handset market.
Thuraya only sells 2 terminals: the SO-2510 (the smallest satellite terminal
in the world) and the SG-2520 (dubbed a "satellite smartphone" but it's
really just a Windows CE device with no possibility to install custom
applications). This would also open new opportunities for custom hardware
such as the Dash Express. Having an open satellite terminal with a builtin
GPS receiver would be great for a lot of applications (IMHO).

Finally, Thuraya seems to be very open to new developments, they have helped
us a lot during the development process. The only problem is getting the
other components (antennas, cables, development boards, SIM cards, prepaid
scratch cards, etc) but we've become quite good at it so I can help with
that if anyone is interested.

Please let me know what you think. I will answer any questions you might
have, provided they are not covered by the NDA we have signed with Thuraya.
Once again, I do not work for Thuraya, I just own a small company in Romania
and we have successfully used them in the past 1.5 years.

Best regards,
Razvan



-- 
Razvan Dragomirescu
Chief Technology Officer
Cayenne Graphics SRL

------=_Part_9333_23789803.1219769654632
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

<div dir="ltr"><div>Hello everyone,</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>I was wondering if anyone here had considered creating a satellite phone based on OpenMoko hardware. I&#39;ve been giving it some thought and I think it should be doable. I was thinking about the Thuraya Module SM-2500 module (<a href="http://www.thuraya.com/content/thurayamodule.html">http://www.thuraya.com/content/thurayamodule.html</a>). We have been using it here for another project and it&#39;s quite versatile. It&#39;s basically a phone/modem combo with a 100 pin interface that exposes a variety of signals (including microphone input, speaker output, a client USB port, 2 UARTs, etc). It has a builtin GPS receiver and it can be made to work with a small omnidirectional quadrifilar helix antenna. And it&#39;s cheap too, it costs less than 200 EUR in small volumes.</div>

<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>It allows for voice communication and data (both CSD at 9600bps and GmPRS which is a GPRS-like connection, 15kbps on the uplink, 60kbps on the downlink). They&#39;ve even made sure the AT commands used to talk to the module are the same as the ones used in GSM world (so you basically do AT+CGDCONT to set the GmPRS APN, then you do ATD*99# to connect the GmPRS satellite data session, etc).</div>

<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>The downside is that it does not have coverage in the Americas, although it covers over 170 countries (<a href="http://www.thuraya.com/content/coverage-area.html">http://www.thuraya.com/content/coverage-area.html</a>). Data costs about $5/MB and calls can be as low as $0.20 to another satellite terminal and $0.39 to anywhere else in the world (<a href="http://www.thuraya.com/content/prepaid.html">http://www.thuraya.com/content/prepaid.html</a>).</div>

<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>From a commercial point of view, this would allow OpenMoko to enter a new market that is considerably less crowded than the GSM handset market. Thuraya only sells 2 terminals: the SO-2510 (the smallest satellite terminal in the world) and the SG-2520 (dubbed a &quot;satellite smartphone&quot; but it&#39;s really just a Windows CE device with no possibility to install custom applications). This would also open new opportunities for custom hardware such as the Dash Express. Having an open satellite terminal with a builtin GPS receiver would be great for a lot of applications (IMHO).</div>

<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Finally, Thuraya seems to be very open to new developments, they have helped us a lot during the development process. The only problem is getting the other components (antennas, cables, development boards, SIM cards, prepaid scratch cards, etc) but we&#39;ve become quite good at it so I can help with that if anyone is interested.</div>

<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Please let me know what you think. I will answer any questions you might have, provided they are not covered by the NDA we have signed with Thuraya. Once again, I do not work for Thuraya, I just own a small company in Romania and we have successfully used them in the past 1.5 years.</div>

<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Best regards,</div>
<div>Razvan</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Razvan Dragomirescu<br>Chief Technology Officer<br>Cayenne Graphics SRL<br></div></div>

------=_Part_9333_23789803.1219769654632--



More information about the hardware mailing list