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Democracy & Technology Blog Satellite Take Off

Bret Swanson
November 3, 2005
Telecommunications

After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, we predicted satellite phones would finally emerge as a mainstream component in our communications infrastructure. According to this morning’s Wall Street Journal, it looks like we were right:

What a change a Category 4 hurricane makes. A few years ago, demand for satellite phones was so tepid that the two largest U.S. manufacturers, Iridium and Globalstar LP, were forced to seek bankruptcy-court protection.

But today satellite phones are among the hottest products in the telecom industry. Manufacturers have been deluged with orders since Hurricane Katrina revealed the weaknesses in the country’s land-line and cellphone systems.

-Bret Swanson

Bret Swanson

Bret Swanson is a Senior Fellow at Seattle's Discovery Institute, where he researches technology and economics and contributes to the Disco-Tech blog. He is currently writing a book on the abundance of the world economy, focusing on the Chinese boom and developing a new concept linking economics and information theory. Swanson writes frequently for the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal on topics ranging from broadband communications to monetary policy.