Satellite Phone

Have a look at thread 78932 here.

If you use the satphone infrequenly, you only need a next G or Telstra GSM sim with international roaming activated.

George_M

Ma Pa
George is correct but the simcard must be on a Telstra plan, Not a SATPHONE plan just an ordinary every day GSM mobile phone plan. I got a cheap $10 per month plan and yes you must have Intermational Roaming connected.

Regards....................Trouper

PS if you had a Motorola 9500 which has a large creditcard size simcard then the above does not apply.

ok I have a 9500 with a large simcard and the above does apply.

All you have to do is slot the small sim into the large card and it works fine..

On my next g sim with a normal business plan,, i can slot that into the sat phone and it works fine but the cost is silly.

When a call comes in the caller pays and the receiver pays,,, approx $2 every 30seconds..
When you call out it costs approx 0.40c flagfall plus $2.50 every 30seconds..

But the bonus is that when you get back from a trip you can just put your simcard back into the normal phone and your sat phone can sit there out of contract until next time you wanna put your sim into it without costing anything for downtime during that year.

If you have a dedicated satphone plan like i do @ $30 a month,,, you get $10 of free calls on top which doesnt last long believe me..
BUT,, when someone calls you it cost them 0.60cents a minute and cost you nothing...
When you ring out it is a 0.40cents flag fall and $2 a minute.
Once your satphone plan is out of contract (2yrs) then you can choose to put your account to sleep for up to 3 months every year lowering the ongoing cost to $30 x 9 =($270 a year)... which you cant stop unless you disconnect , then there is a large connection fee with a new 2 year plan again..

I think all this info is very close if not spot on..

Pivotel also offer Iridium plans in Australia (Pivotel owns Iridium and Globalstar).

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

TR Telecom run some good plans. You can cancel after 4 months. $30 per month ($10 worth of calls included) for an active account, or $15 month when inactive. Acivate and deactivate whenever you want, so basically charges are on a prorata basis. see them HERE
regards

I have the exact same phone. Last week I bought a next G phone from the local telstra shop on a plan. I activated international roaming and the card works in the phone no problems. So yes go ahead. Calls are apparently very expensive but for me it is for emergency use and limited sms texting.

I didn't try but have been told that the sim must be on a plan and that prepaid sims will NOT work.

NEVER ask in a Telstra shop about Satfones cos as you found out they know nothing about them

The last and only call I made from my Motorola 9505A using my normal sim card cost EXACTLY $3.77 for a 1 minute call .

Not about or maybe but EXACTLY $3.77

I was on the Nullabor and rang a motel in Ceduna using the phone exactly as I would have using the mobile NO extra prefixes or anything.

Just remember that if you travel with the sim in the satfone and someone rings
your mobile number they will get you on the Satfone and

IT WILL COST YOU THE SAME CALL RATE AS RINGING OUT $3.77 in my case

You can also send and receive texts but NOT FROM OPTUS OR VODAFONE subscribers.

You can however send one TO THEM Cost either 50 or 75c. I cant remember as its two years since I tried the texting on the phone.

We just use it for emergency situations where there is no mobile coverage but remember the above as you are never out of range while the satfone is turned on so if family rings up for a chat it will cost you bigtime.

The magnetic external aerial is good for using while travelling as well, just bung it on the roof and carefully run the wire in through the door seals