With the development of a global economy, business people who regularly travel internationally are a fast growing breed. To meet their needs, satellite-based global telecommunications networks are being developed. The first such network is to be commercially activated by Iridium, LLC on Nov. 1, 1998. These networks provide services, such as international cellular phone and paging services. Such networks inevitably involve numerous entities in many different countries which work together as part of the network. Such entities involve governments, service providers, industry clearinghouses, and others. Each call made through the network often involves numerous entities and often crosses national sovereignty lines.
When providing global telecommunication services to users, national sovereignty lines and other geographic or geopolitical characteristics may be taken into account. For example, rates for telephone service to certain countries may be higher. Similarly, service to certain countries may be blocked because of laws within a particular country. Geographic characteristics, such as mountain ranges, may also be taken into account to ensure adequate signal transmission.
Conventional cellular systems utilize terrestrial cellular sites. Each site is located in a particular geographic area. The conventional site is also immovable. Thus, the geographic area of a cell site is known. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily realize that such immovable cell sites must be used in the conventional cellular system. Conventional satellites may also be able to identify geographic features. For example, a conventional satellite can broadcast a beam to the earth and, using portions of the beam reflected back to the conventional satellite, determine the features of a geographic area of interest. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will realize that such conventional satellites merely identify features of the area intercepting the broadcast beam.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for providing global telecommunications while taking geopolitical and other geographic features into account. The present invention addresses such a need.