Satellite based mobile phones

Those of you who still think that mobile phones always existed with cell towers and cell networks, i would like to make it a point that you have ignored history. Yes, phones with wireless connectivity was the primary idea. THe obvious choice for most of the engineers those days was satellite broadcast. During the 1990s, many believed satellite phones were the future of mobile communications. But the cost constraint always haunts us ain't it? Satellite networks proved to be too costly especially for nations which hardly had any satellites to their name. Rapidly expanding terrestrial cellular networks gobbled up most of the market instead. Also, the cost of setting up a cellular network(though few subsystems in it communicate through satellites) was cheaper than a pure satellite based network. Still, satellite phones retained some technical advantages over cellular ones, principally in remote or rugged areas that are difficult to cover economically with cell towers. Mobile device manufacturers(MDMs) still exist in some parts of the globe who fabricate equipment that can connect and switch between satellite and cell networks.

I hope you have certainly seen the unseen!!