Motorola Inc bypassed the lengthy process of obtaining satellite licences for its planned global Iridium low earth orbit satellite-based mobile telephony service last week, and went out and bought some instead. The Radio Determination Satellite Services licences had been owned by Geostar Inc, which went bankrupt and sold off its assets in an auction. Motorola paid $50,000 for them. The licences authorise position and messages to be sent over the 1,610MHz-to-1,626.5MHz frequency band via satellite, and Motorola will use them for the network of 77 low-orbit satellites it intends to start launching in 1997 as the basis the Iridium global telephony service. Motorola had already applied to the Federal Communications Commission for its own Radio Determination Satellite Services licences, but found that the number of companies also applying was leading to delays in the process, and so took the opportunity that the Geostar sale presented. The company will not now be following up the applications it had made under its own name. Before Motorola can use the licences, though, the transfer must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission, which has to decide if the transfer is in the public interest and in keeping with the Communications Act, although the company does not expect this to cause any problems.
