The cost of making a satcom phone call should plummet next year, when initial Iridium low-Earth orbit (LEO) satcom service becomes available to aircraft equipped with AlliedSignal's Airsat 1 single-channel satcom transceiver. Priced at a fraction of today's Inmarsat satcom avionics, Airsat 1 also will be svelte enough for installation in small business aircraft. Notably, Airsat 1 only will need a patch antenna atop the fuselage. Five- and eight-channel, ARINC 761 compatible, Airsat systems will be introduced by the end of 1999.