NEW YORK-British Telecommunications plc and Telenor of Norway have launched a satellite phone as small and light as a notebook personal computer. It’s called Mobiq.
The phone, which weighs just over five pounds, provides voice, fax and data communications including e-mail and comes as a complete package of telephone and airtime, said BT. The service uses the International Mobile Satellite Organization’s system of satellites.
The Mobiq phone costs around $3,850 with airtime charges around $3 per minute, said the company. It operates with a removable subscriber identity module. Users will initially be able to use the service in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, western Australia and most of Africa, said the company. The service will be extended to encompass the rest of the world during 1997.
