Abstract
Based on the assumption that technical problems and regulations will be eliminated by the use of the 3G wireless mobile phone in the future, we compared the 3G wireless mobile phone and the HEO satellite in terms of the cost for transmitting video data from ambulances at 2 Mbps, relying on available public data It was assumed that a dedicated line (2 Mbps for ambulance use only) would be added to the 3G wireless mobile phone service offered in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya by NTT DoCoMo. The cost for adding such a dedicated line and transceivers at transit nodes in the 3G network was compared with that of Highly Inclined Elliptic Orbit (HEO) (four satellites)-based service. If the two methods are compared on a nationwide basis, the use of a 2 Mbps line dedicated to ambulance communications will be 15 times as costly per capita as the satellite-based service, and as much as 489 times costly per area.
