More Blockade-Running Technology: Cheaper Satellite Phones
After this post on DIY cell phone base stations generated interest from readers, I followed one suggestion in the comments to see whether satellite phones have gotten any cheaper recently. They have, and how. This model is currently selling for under $235 new on Amazon.com.
I have to think that they could be acquired for even less in volume through sources in India or China. Can anyone out there find a better price?
At those prices, this sounds more feasible than I earlier believed (I was expecting costs at $500 or more). But this begs other questions…
How would the operating costs be covered? Are the operating costs more expensive than regular cell service (the people along the border piggyback on Chinese service, which I assume is cheap)? And would the line-of-sight connection with the sky make the users vulnerable?
(Am I correct in assuming there must be some sort of line-of-sight connection with the sky overhead? I’m assuming it would require a connection at least as good as I would need to operate my GPS navigator, which has trouble making a connection if I turn it on in my dorm room even though there’s a 7’x5′ window and completely stops working if I’m in a parking structure.)
If these are minor problems that can be easily worked around, I think this would be a very good method of communication.
Line of site is best, but not always needed as it depends on what the enclosure is made from. Parking structures are steel and cement, so difficult to penetrate. I would think a “typical” norK country cottage (sounds so quaint) wouldn’t be too difficult for the signals to penetrate.
As for “per minute” usage, it is a bit higher for voice transmissions while data transmissions are typically charged per kb.
Although I’m not sure, I would assume that one of the ROK satellites would cover norK and I wonder if it would be possible to get transponder time “donated” to any organization seeking to provide phones.
The phones in norK are probably using the Globalstar network and their rates range from $35.00 a month (for 30 minutes of voice/data) to approximately $500 a month for up to 3000 minutes. Each additional minute probably runs somewhere between $0.50 to $1.00 a minute.
Forgive me for cross-commenting, but $235 is chump change, really, innit. In addition, rather like the much-pondered (by me, at least) notion of petitioning Steve Jobs to make a charitable donation of 100,000 i-pods for getting news and info into NK, i would imagine that satellite phone companies could be cajoled into generosity, if they could be made to see the benefit of the “We brought down the Kim regime” marketing hook five to ten years down the track.
If you reside within the district of Pyongyang and are an elite Government employee, then you would naturally upgrade your satellite phone with the local merchant in U.S.D and not worry about the masses of the other cities in the DPRK whom are forced to not even be given the luxury of eating cake without flour. Pyongyang will be the first city to burn down by north Koreans, no foreigners,.
Not foreign people.
Satellite TV annoys the Iranian leaders. Maybe it would be good for North Korea, too.
“Farsi1 offers no political fare, neither news nor editorial commentary. Instead, it provides viewers with comedies and dramas, most of them from Latin America and Korea, and toned down for a more conservative Iranian audience.” But the Iranian Cyber Army went after it anyway. (They also supposedly attacked a Chinese search engine, so they could be a loose cannon.)
Read all about in this report by Dexter Filkins:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/20/world/middleeast/20afghan.html?hp