Mobile satellite communication is rendered from the radio station (earth station) installed in ground or maritime mobile entities (automobile, vessel, aircraft, etc.) to the other radio station (earth station) via the artificial satellite. (For example, it's possible to communicate (by telephone) from a ship on the Pacific Ocean to a home or an office within Japan.)
Mobile satellite communication is enabled different kinds of artificial satellites. The communicating range covers almost all the land and maritime areas in Japan. Also, mobile satellite communication is notably recognized as a relatively powerful measure against disasters.
Based on the orbit of the satellite, it communicates by either the geostationary satellite, the quasi-zenith satellite, or the non-geostationary satellite.
The geostationary satellite is the artificial satellite which looks stationary from the ground. 3-4 geostationary satellites can cover almost the entire surface of the earth. Most of the artificial satellites actually used for communications or broadcasting are geostationary satellites.
The quasi-zenith satellite is an artificial satellite of the satellite system where one satellite always stays near the zenith in Japan by positioning at least three satellites synchronously on the orbit inclined at 45 degrees from the geostationary orbit. As the ground surface orbit draws the shape of number 8, it's also called "Number 8 Orbit Satellite". It can obtain a high elevation angle to reduce the influence of buildings and so forth (blocking.)
This is roughly divided into three kinds of orbits: highly elliptic orbit, medium earth orbit, and low earth orbit. The medium and low earth orbits have lower satellite altitudes to shorten the radio transmission delay, enabling more speedy and smooth communication. Specifically, the highly elliptic orbit can obtain a higher elevation angle. It is currently being researched and developed.
i. Highly Elliptic Orbit (HEO)
ii. Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)
iii. Low Earth Orbit (LEO)