A Turkish company has announced the development of a Sat-Fi device that will turn ordinary cellphones into satellite phones.

They will start to operate in December within Europe, the Middle East and Turkey, the CEO of Globalstar Eurasia, Atilla Ozcelik, announced yesterday.

The Sat-Fi device, developed by Globalstar Eurasia in collaboration with The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, was unveiled in the U.S. last month.

The device enables up to eight cellphones to access the global phone network, connect to the internet and – in cases of emergency – even send GPS location data in an area with no working phone signal.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, Ozcelik said that they are proud of developing a device which can resolve the network coverage problems of phone networks.

“Satellite phones do not work in closed areas. You have to buy additional apparatuses, which cost as much as the satellite phone itself. But this problem disappears with Sat-Fi,” Ozcelik said.

“One device enables you to turn eight phones or tablets into satellite phones, giving you the opportunity to call and send or receive e-mails and text messages. And what’s more, this is all for the cost of just one satellite phone,” he added.

The device has the capacity of changing the lives of people who work far from the coverage of phone networks, such as ships, mountains, construction sites or even those just living in rural areas.

There are 1.5 billion people who, in 2012, are still unconnected due to network coverage issues, according to a report released by GSMA, a global trade association representing more than 700 mobile phone operators across the world.

•Photo courtesy of Anadolu Agency.