An Ariane 5 rocket Wednesday afternoon put into orbit a commercial telecommunications satellite touted as being the world's biggest.

The TerreStar 1, weighing about 15,000 pounds, was the only cargo aboard the rocket that is capable of carrying double payloads.

The satellite is equipped with a deployable antenna about 60 feet across.

It is the centerpiece of a communications service by TerreStar Networks Inc. for smart phones that will switch between the satellite and a ground-based network as needed.

TerreStar expects the network to be used primarily by governments, emergency workers, rural communities and commercial users.

Before launching the satellite, TerreStar had introduced a line of quad-band GSM and tri-band smart phones capable of transmitting and receiving voice and data from space or ground.

The system will operate in two 10-megahertz blocks of contiguous MSS spectrum in the 2 GHz band in the U.S. and Canada.