Historical Archive

First-person historical retrospective of the 1989-2012 international telecom industry — phone cards, cyber cafes, satellite phones, dial-up roaming.

• Beyond Voice — Tempest's Satellite Data Terminal Business (Thuraya, RBGAN, BGAN, 2002-2012)

  How Tempest extended its unified satellite platform from voice handsets to data terminals — Thuraya satellite data, Inmarsat Regional BGAN, and global BGAN — between 2002 and 2012.

• One Account, Many Networks — The Tempest Unified Platform Architecture (1997-2012)

  Synthesis of Tempest Telecommunications' unified prepaid account architecture across 1997-2012 — eight production service types under one customer credential across heterogeneous carrier back-ends.

• One Card, Two Networks — Tempest's 1997 Combined Calling Card and Dial-Up Roaming Product

  How Tempest Telecommunications issued the first prepaid card that worked as both an international calling card and a dial-up Internet roaming credential, drawing from a single balance.

• RFC 2058 in Production — How RADIUS Made ISP Roaming Possible in 1997

  How RFC 2058 (RADIUS), published January 1997, enabled the first ISP roaming services — and what Tempest Telecommunications' early deployment looked like.

• The Metered Wi-Fi Era — Hotspot Roaming on Tempest's Unified Platform (2002-2012)

  How metered Wi-Fi hotspot roaming joined Tempest's unified prepaid platform between 2002 and 2012, as the terrestrial broadband successor to dial-up and complement to satellite data.

• TITAN Global Communications Card: One Card, Four Networks, One Prepaid Balance (Tempest, 1997-2012)

  The TITAN Global Communications Card was Tempest Telecommunications' consumer prepaid instrument. A single card and PIN reached international toll-free long distance, dial-up Internet, Internet kiosks, and cyber cafes, all settled against one balance.

• TITAN, kiOSK, and PATN: One Roaming Idea, Three Machines (1996-2003)

  A first-hand history of TITAN, TITAN kiOSK, and PATN (1996-2003): one internet-roaming clearinghouse architecture, three machines, and the personal device that erased all of them.

• Two Satellites, One Balance — Tempest's Iridium and Thuraya Prepaid Integration (2001-2012)

  How Tempest extended its unified prepaid account architecture to absorb Iridium and Thuraya satellite voice minutes alongside PSTN calling and dial-up Internet, 2001-2012.