Sat phone clarity

[Johnny Rico]

I swear, what is the deal with ordinary phone communications? Either land line or cell phones. They usually suck. And it doesn't matter how far apart they are. Could be across town, a few door down or across state lines or even slightly out of the country.

But it seems that sat phone communications are clear as day. Like they're standing in the room with you.

For example, last year my folks took a Mediterranean cruise where one of destinatioins was Istanbul. Dad called me and anothe friend and it sounds like they're in the next room.

Today, or last night night actually, my sister flew from Nashville to Dulles, and then to Addis Adaba, Ethiopia (the capital) to pick up her newly adopted daughter from an orphanage there. She called today at around 14:40 CT (23:40 Ethiopia time) via sat phone and it sounded like she was in the same room with us.

But then, we get a call from the family just two doors down from us and we can hardly hear them. What gives?

I mean, it all goes through the same phone lines, so why does a sat phone call from the other side of the world sound like you're in the same room, but a local call sounds like your shouting from opposite rims of the Grand Canyon.

Would it be in the local switch boards? Out of date equipment or what? It just doesn't make sense.

Any telecommunications experts out there that can explain this?

 

[Mr. B]

Satellite phones are probably still analog, which had much better sound quality than the digital crap we get today. Any veteran cell phone user will probably tell you the Nokias of old sound far better than anything now.

[edit]Out of curiosity I lookoed at wikis on sat phones. Some of them are digital (GSM) now although Globalstar's flagship phone is CDMA.