Elektrobit Corporation and TerreStar Networks are offering a new reference design for a combination satellite/terrestrial cell phone with PDA-like features (see figure 1) that can provide US and Canadian subscribers with full coverage of both countries. Terrestrial part of the phone is a quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE phone covering the usual 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz bands. In addition, it provides WCDMA in the 850 and 1900 MHz bands . WCDMA and HSDPA are also covered in the 2.2 GHz band.

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The satellite features provides coverage is GMR-3G in the 2.2 GHz band (2000-2020 MHz downlink and 2180 to 2200 MHz uplink) thanks to the TerreStar geosynchronous satellite. Government, emergency responders, enterprise businesses and rural communities can all benefit from this phone and the related services.

The EB/TerreStar satellite/terrestrial PDA smart phone can be built using the now available reference design. All antennas are internal including that for satellite.

The phone design is based on Microsoft Mobile 6 platform. It is a full smartphone with every feature you can think of. It has both a touch screen as well as a full QWERTY keyboard. The screen is 2.6 inches and 320 x 240 QVGA resolution.

Other wireless connectivity includes Bluetooth 2.0 class 2, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, and GPS. All antennas including for satellite service are internal. Multimedia features include a 3.0 megapixel camera with autofocus, zoom and flash. It has a camcorder capability with H.263 compression. Video playback formats are H.263, H.264 and WMV. All common audio playback formats (MP3, AAC, WAV, etc) are included. Video playback is 30 fps with QVGA. Video recording is 15 fps with QVGA. The phone has a MicroSD slot with up to 100 MB memory capacity. And many other features.

The reference design is easily customizable. And planned services with TerreStar are SMS, MMS, IM, Email, push-to-talk and location based services (LBS).

The Connectivity Module is EB/TerreStar’s radio modem that can provide full cellular and satellite coverage for applications like M2M, telematics, marine and land mobile.

Another EB/TerreStar product is the new Connectivity Module. (see figure 2). This radio modem is based on the same satellite/terrestrial PDA reference design described above. It operates in the same frequency bands with essentially the same features. What it does is provide end users with IP access capabilities even Internet access when outside traditional cellular coverage. The Connectivity Module is a “connectivity data pipe” that will enable next generation broadband mobile IP services and applications. The basic design is can be customized to meet development company and end user specific requirements. Some of the potential applications include M2M, vehicular telematics, maritime/boating, and land mobile radio.

For more details go to www.elektrobit.com and www.terrestar.com.