Regulatory flexibility in commercial satellite communications

MSAT, a domestic mobile satellite service (MSS) system under development in the US, is addressed. The high effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of each MSAT satellite, which is orders of magnitude greater than any existing L-band satellite and will allow the introduction of new services, and the economics of MSAT are discussed. The RadioSat system currently being developed, which is optimized for services that support enormous numbers of mobiles on each MSAT channel, is briefly described. The highly flexible MSS regulatory structure established by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is examined