. . "Referring to FIG. 1, a satellite mobile telephone system comprises a plurality of satellite access nodes (SAN) 1 a, 1 b, 1 c interconnected by a high capacity digital network 2 (hereinafter ???the backbone network???), a plurality of satellites 3 a, 3 b, a plurality of a mobile telephones (UT) 4 a, 4 b, gateways 5 a, 5 b, 5 c providing connections between the SANs 1 a, 1 b, 1 c and other networks" . . .