Globalstar's satellite phones don't use ground-based telephone networks, which have likely been destroyed during the daily bombings and urban warfare in the country.

With no infrastructure to make calls, "there's a big use for us after the shooting stops," especially for emergency relief coordinators that provide the first postwar aid inside the country, said spokesman Mac Jefferies.

But U.S. business inside Iraq is banned by the U.S. government, so Globalstar, which already supplies 1,000 phones to military leaders stationed in the Middle East, is now asking for permission to either temporarily, or permanently, lift those restrictions following the war.

"I anticipate there will be an enormous need for wireless communications," he said.

Globalstar is the latest telephone industry player to position a product around the war.

In the next two weeks the telecom industry will be focused on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which will be accepting bids on nearly $1 billion in federal contracts to rebuild Iraq's telephone infrastructure.

The infighting over that cash has already begun. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., sent letters to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and USAID, demanding that Qualcomm's cell phone technology be used in the rebuilding efforts.

Qualcomm's technology, called CDMA (code division multiple access), powers about 20 percent of the world's cell phones and dominates in North America.

But the world's most popular cell phone standard, GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), runs most of the rest of the world. Motorola, Nokia and Ericsson are major providers of GSM network equipment and handsets.

An even larger pool of money may soon become available. Seventeen companies were recently given permission to bid on the billions of dollars that the federal government will spend on telecommunications, whether it's for airtime or Blackberry pagers. Some of that money may be used to rebuild Iraq's war-torn telephone infrastructure, sources said.

Other companies offering products geared toward the war include America Online. AOL on Wednesday began letting subscribers get news on their cell phones about any of 76 different military units now serving in the Iraqi theater of war.

Eatoni Ergonomics is another example. The company creates software that makes it easier for cell phone users to enter information on their phones using the cramped keypad. It has systems to enter text in several different languages, and last week added Kurdish to its list of menu choices.

"Since text messaging is among the cheapest and most effective means of wireless communication, it is likely to be the workhorse communication tool for postwar Iraqi," said Chief Executive Howard Gutowitz. "Carriers will not want to leave anybody out."