Ban on Thuraya phones criticised

Gulf telecom firm Thuraya yesterday criticised a U.S. ban on some journalists from using its satellite phones in Iraq, saying it was very unlikely the signal could reveal the location of American troops.

Some reporters with U.S. forces have been banned from using Thurayas, apparently because of fears the signal could be intercepted. At least one journalist's handset has been confiscated.

Chairman Mohammed Omran told Reuters that Thuraya's complex encryption system would make it very difficult to locate journalists using the phone while travelling with U.S. troops.

"The journalists should not be prevented (from using Thurayas). It is highly unlikely that our phones are endangering anyone's lives," Omran said.

"Callers must specifically request to see their position and even when they do, the information beamed back to them via satellite is encrypted and the code is difficult to crack," he said. But he added: "There is no system in the world that cannot be penetrated."

An official at U.S. Central Command in Qatar said the ban was not intended to restrict media coverage of the war, but to safeguard against attacks by Iraqis. Several technical experts, however, said they were unaware of any field-level technology that could be used to find users.

Thurayas use a highly-accurate Geographical Positioning System (GPS), which can identify a user to within 100 metres and which could be a reason for military concern.

Rival Iridium satellite phones, which are used by the U.S. military, are said to have less accurate GPS. Iridium satellite phones download their user location and billing data to the United States. Thuraya location data is downloaded to Thuraya headquarters in Abu Dhabi.

Thuraya, however, sees no adverse impact on its business following the confiscation of its mobile phones by the U.S. Army in Iraq, according to a top official.

Sales of Thuraya mobile phones as well as usage increased significantly after the war began in Iraq, he said.

"Our sales and business have been strong and steadily growing since we launched commercial services - not after the war began. And we will see it growing further. We launched our system to extend it to non-GSM users in remote areas," said Omran.

"Our system uses GPS but not for every call. The system identifies the user once every 24 hours. The only way others would know where the user is if the user finds the GPS and communicates it or sends a message to others," he said, adding that even in GSM, the system is able to know the nearest base station of the user.

Omran said Thuraya has not been officially contacted by the U.S. authorities. "We have been hearing from the media, we have received plenty of e-mails from American and Western journalists and there are some rumours going around."

Omran added: "Sales of handsets have gone up considerably and usage has increased. In Iraq, usage was about 17,000 minutes per day in the first week of the war and it was 12,000 minutes per day in Kuwait. The overall increase in sales of Thuraya phones is about 20 per cent in the last few days," a Thuraya spokesman said.

The surge "could be due to the war, it is also due to active sales promotion and demand in key markets".

Thuraya has no service provider agreement with Iraq but its phones are available in all neighbouring markets such as Iran, Syria, Kuwait or Jordan where Thuraya has official sales agents.

"Our phones could be bought from any of these countries and used in Iraq or Kuwait," said Omran.