Thuraya (Arabic: الثريا) is a regional satellite phone provider, mainly focused on the Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Thuraya has two geostationary communications satellites in orbit (built by Boeing), but one of them has deficient solar panels and cannot operate properly. The third satellite was planned for launch in Q1 2007 by SeaLaunch, which is now jeopardized by a SeaLaunch rocket failure in January 2007. The launch of the Far East and Australia service was planned for 2007.
The company is based in the United Arab Emirates and distributes its products and service through authorized service providers. Its shareholders are a mixture of Middle Eastern and North African telcos (in which Etisalat is a major one) and investment companies.
A Thuraya satellite phone, and its folding solar charging panel.
Thuraya provides the following satellite-based services:
- Voice communications with handheld (Thuraya SO-2510, Hughes 7100/7101 (discontinued) and Ascom 21 (discontinued)) or fixed terminals, - Short message service, - 9.6 Kbps of data & fax service, - 144 Kbps high-speed data transfer via a notebook-sized terminal (ThurayaDSL), - GPS is supported by terminals, - a number of value-added services, such as news, call back, call waiting, missed calls, voicemail, WAP, etc. - the Thuraya network has a unique 'high power alert' capability that notifies users of an incoming call, when they are out of the satellite coverage.
The current number of subscribers is around 250,000 (March 2006). Some 360,000 Thuraya handsets have been put in service since launch in 2001. The subscriber growth has apparently slowed down during the last year, but Thuraya still made a net profit of US$80 million on revenues of $323 million in 2005 (compared to just US$26 million profit in 2004).
All Thuraya handsets (except for the SO-2510) have a dual-mode feature that allows them to operate in the Thuraya satellite network and GSM terrestrial mobile networks. Thuraya has concluded roaming agreements with over 200 wireless (cellular) operators around the world, providing its customers the ability of using their Thuraya phones outside the satellite coverage. The dual-mode feature of the handset is similar to the Telit (GSM/Satellite) and Qualcomm (CDMA/Satellite) handsets on the Globalstar system.
The second generation of Thuraya devices are becoming available. The satellite-only SO-2510 was released in November 2006. It has a colour screen and is claimed to be the smallest and lightest satellite phone in the world. The SG-2520 has been delayed, but is expected in the first quarter of 2007. It will support Thuraya and GSM 900/1800/1900 networks and will run on Windows CE. It will be the first satellite phone with a built-in camera. Both second generation phones will support GPRS data at rates of around 60 Kbps when the network's service is made available.
Thuraya will also be releasing a so called "Thuraya Module", a small (70x50x20mm) unit designed for integration into other devices. This will provide USB and digital audio interfaces and be run on VxWorks OS. Previously, third-party hardware developers used to remove electronics from handsets and integrate it into their hardware.
