Sarantel Antenna Featured In New Iridium 9555 Satellite Phone
Iridium Satellite LLC and Sarantel announce that the Sarantel PowerHelix antenna technology was selected for, and is being built into, the just-released Iridium 9555 handset.
Sarantel develops and manufactures advanced miniature filtering antennas for mobile, wireless and handheld devices. Iridium is a pioneer in the satellite communications industry and is the only mobile satellite services (MSS) company offering truly global, pole-to-pole coverage.
The Iridium 9555 represents a dramatic step forward in innovation and usability for handsets in the MSS sector. Users will benefit from a host of innovative features, such as a brighter screen, a speaker phone, short messaging service (SMS) and email capabilities, an upgraded mini-USB data port, an internal antenna and significantly reduced form factor. It is also programmable in 14 languages.
"The ability of Iridium to reduce the antenna size, without sacrificing performance, was a critical design element for this revolutionary new handset," said David Schoen, chief technology officer, Iridium. "Sarantel responded to our challenge by providing Iridium with a highly innovative, technically advanced design for the 9555 antenna. They proved to be a superb technology partner, producing a creative, cost-effective and performance-driven solution."
David Wither, chief executive of Sarantel, said, "We are honored that Iridium selected us to supply the antenna for the 9555. Up until now, the most significant challenge for satellite phone makers has been finding an antenna small enough to make their product attractive while obtaining high enough performance to meet stringent link margin requirements. The pioneering work Sarantel is doing with antenna technology now means that, for the first time, users can benefit from high performance in a small handheld satellite phone package, like Iridium's innovative new 9555."
About Iridium Satellite
Iridium Satellite LLC ( http://www.iridium.com) is the only MSS company offering pole-to-pole coverage over the entire globe. The Iridium constellation of low-earth orbiting (LEO), cross-linked satellites provides critical voice and data services for areas not served by other communication networks. Iridium's subscriber growth has been driven by increasing demand for reliable, secure, global communications. Iridium serves commercial markets through a worldwide network of hundreds of distributors, and provides services to the U.S. Department of Defense, and other U.S. and international government agencies. The company's customers represent a broad spectrum of industry, including maritime, aeronautical, government/defense, public safety, utilities, oil/gas, mining, forestry, heavy equipment and transportation. Iridium has launched a major development program for its next-generation satellite constellation, Iridium NEXT, which will result in continued and new Iridium MSS offerings. The company is headquartered in Bethesda, Md. and is privately held.
About Sarantel
Sarantel ( http://www.sarantel.com) is a leader in the design of high-performance miniature antennas for portable wireless applications, including handheld navigation, satellite radio and laptop computers. Sarantel's revolutionary ceramic filtering antennas offer dramatically improved performance over existing antenna designs, resulting in a clearer signal, better range and 90 percent reduction in the amount of signal radiation absorbed by the body. Because of their smaller size and higher capabilities, Sarantel's antennas enable manufacturers to create innovative high-volume consumer products incorporating technologies such as GPS, Wi-Fi, WiMax, 3G, GPRS, satellite radio and Bluetooth.
SOURCE: Sarantel Group