FAQ

Thuraya FAQs


What is Thuraya?
Why Thuraya?
What are Thuraya's benefits?
Who are Thuraya's target users?
Where is Thuraya?
When was Thuraya launched?

What is Thuraya?
Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Company is a regional mobile satellite system that provides satellite telephone services to a region covering more than 110 countries. Thuraya offers satellite-based telephony through a dynamic mobile phone that combines satellite, GSM & GPS.

Thuraya was established in April 1997 in UAE, as a private joint stock company. The shareholders of the Thuraya are 21 prominent national telecommunications operators and investment houses.

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Why Thuraya?
Thuraya was established to meet a demand for seamless coverage of mobile telecommunications. Its mission is to provide uninterrupted telecommunications services to a vast region inhabited by 2.3 billion people.

With Thuraya, users are assured of continuous border-to-border coverage beyond boundaries of terrestrial systems and cellular networks.

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What are Thuraya's benefits?
Thuraya integrates satellite, GSM and GPS all in one handset. Each handset offers voice, data, facsimile, messaging and GPS.

Thuraya's dual service enables the user to use GSM service any time in local networks, yet automatically switch onto satellite mode whenever out of local terrestrial reach.

Thuraya service is available through local telecom operators. As a facilitator of advanced technology, Thuraya aims to contribute to the development of telecommunications infrastructures. Thuraya's satellite services will touch people's lives in a fundamental way, allowing them to grow closer, no matter where they are, and remain connected to their work partners and loved ones.

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Who are Thuraya's target users?
Thuraya's service is valuable to a wide variety of users: regional roamers to international travelers, international transportation fleets to national marine operators, relief and rescue crews to workers of remote industrial sites.

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Where is Thuraya?
Thuraya covers an area spanning more then 110 countries that is inhabited by 2.3 billion. Thuraya's footprint includes Europe, North, Central and large parts of Southern Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia. Thuraya's services are available through service providers in each market and worldwide.

Thuraya is based in the UAE. The Thuraya 2 satellite is positioned in Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) 35,786 KM (22, 236) above the Earth, at 44 degrees East Longitude and inclined at 6.3 degrees. Its primary gateway, situated in Sharjah, UAE, acts as the operation center for the mobile satellite system.

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When was Thuraya launched?
The Thuraya 1 satellite was successfully launched on board a Sea Launch Zenit-3 rocket from the equator in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on October 21, 2000. Thuraya launched its commercial services in 2001.

Thurays's second satellite - Thuraya 2 was launched on June 10th 2003, while a third satellite is being built by Boeing Satellite Systems to expand system capacity.

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