Iridium Satellite Network Is Going To The Dogs

The Iditarod venue, that is…Iridium Satellite and its partners are providing the most critical voice and data links for the 2008 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. The race started last Saturday. IonEarth is deploying Iridium-enabled, bi-directional GPS tracking devices. These will allow race organizers, volunteers, media and fans to follow the movement of the equipped mushers in real-time at at this website. World Communication Center (WCC) is also supplying Iridium satphones and pages for use by the iditarod Race Committee and volunteers to communicate along the course. As should be rather obvious to anyone who has ever viewed a map of Alaska, its tundra and surround “open space”, communication is rather limited as far as landlines and wireless systems, which is why Sam Romey, the President of WCC, stated, “…Iridium is the only mobile satellite system that provides reliable coverage across the entire state of Alaska.” The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race has been described as the “Last Great Race on Earth.” It runs from Anchorage, in south central Alaska, to Nome on the western Bering Sea coast. Ninety-six teams of 12 to 16 dogs and their mushers will cover nearly 1,000 miles in 10 to 17 days, a homage to the mushers who, in 1925, helped deliver diphtheria serum to stricken Nome via the Iditarod Trail mail routes. The Iditarod covers some of the roughest, most-extreme terrain Mother Nature has to offer. Jagged mountain ranges, frozen rivers, dense forests, desolate tundra and miles of windswept coast test mushers and their dogs against everything wild in the Alaskan frontier—Bethesda, Maryland