CUBA

India bans unlicensed satellite communication and navigation devices, including Thuraya and Iridium phones and Garmin InReach, under the Indian Telegraph Act (1885) and Wireless Telegraphy Act (1933), with penalties up to three years in prison or ₹5 million in fines, and limited DoT licensing for Inmarsat devices. The 2008 Mumbai attacks involved a Thuraya satellite phone, prompting India’s tougher crackdown on civilian satphones. In March 2025 at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, three American travelers and one Australian were booked under Indian telecom laws for carrying Garmin GPS units and an Iridium satphone. Between January 2020 and September 2021, Karnataka

Iridium, a LEO network, started service in 1998 and operates 66 active cross-linked satellites, delivering near-global coverage, with the Iridium NEXT second-generation network launched in 2019. Globalstar uses 48 satellites (24 second-generation as of 2013), has no inter-satellite links and relies on ground gateways, and Apple’s Emergency SOS on iPhone 14 uses about 85% of Globalstar’s capacity for emergency texts. Inmarsat operates a GEO fleet of about 11 satellites, offers IsatPhone handheld services, the IsatPhone 2 provides ~8 hours of talk time and 160 hours of standby, and Inmarsat expanded with I-4/I-6 series after its 2023 acquisition by Viasat. Thuraya

Iridium operates about 66 LEO satellites at roughly 780 km, offering truly global coverage including the poles with a one-way latency around 0.1–0.2 seconds. Inmarsat uses 3–4 GEO satellites at about 35,786 km, delivering near-global coverage (roughly ±70° latitude) with about 0.5 second latency, and IsatPhone 2 offers up to 8 hours of talk and 160 hours of standby. Thuraya, based in the UAE, operates 2 GEO satellites covering roughly 160 countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia, with XT-LITE priced around $650. Globalstar currently operates a Gen2 constellation of 24 LEO satellites at about 1,414 km,

Bangladesh bans satellite phone use; possession can lead to arrest and imprisonment. North Korea prohibits all unauthorized communication devices, foreigners must surrender phones and privacy is not guaranteed, with detention possible. India restricts satellite phones to government‑approved Inmarsat devices, requiring a license (No Objection Certificate) from the Department of Telecommunications before bringing one in. China maintains a de facto ban on private sat phones, requiring registration for limited state use and has deployed jammers in some areas to block unapproved devices. Chad bans satellite phones under any circumstances, with Thuraya explicitly outlawed and Iridium sometimes tolerated. Myanmar (Burma) effectively bans