Using an Iridium 9505a with a Telstra next G SIM card.

Hi all, just a quick one, when out of next G coverage I'll put my next G SIM into the Sat phone, my question is do you have to dial the country code in before the Australian area code and phone number ie 0011 61 0# ######## or just dial the area code and number? Also people calling/texting you, do they just dial your 10 digit next G number if you are in Australia and so are they? Cheers, Kanga.
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Reply By: Member - GRANT HID(NSW) - Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 15:50

Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 15:50
Hi Kanga1,
You just dial the area code then the number,people ring your normal number they find a delay in the time they dial till the time it starts to ring.

Cheers
Grant
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Follow Up By: Kanga1 - Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 17:22

Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 17:22
Hi Grant, I thought that it would be done that way, just thought I'd check before I tell the kids and other Rels how to contact us, cheers. Kanga.
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Follow Up By: George_M - Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 18:00

Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 18:00
If you're using your Next G sim then I wouldn't encourage too many people to call you on your satphone, Kanga1. (lol)

When a call is made to your mobile phone, and your Next G sim is in your 9505A, Telstra charges YOU a fee to divert it to your satphone service. I think this fee is about $3.50 per minute.

A quick chat can build up to a serious bill...

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Follow Up By: Kanga1 - Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 18:18

Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 18:18
Thanks George, I knew it was an expensive diversion, they'll only use it for an emergency. Cheers, Kanga.
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Follow Up By: Ozhumvee - Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 18:25

Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 18:25
To save having the satphone on all the time I get people to send a text, you will get it when you turn the phone on of an evening and can either text back on ring. Works out much cheaper than messagebank or actual phone calls.
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Follow Up By: Kanga1 - Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 18:42

Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 18:42
Good tip Peter, I hoped texts would not be lost in the Cosmos, and eventually come through to the Sat phone. Cheers, Kanga.
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Follow Up By: TrevorDavid- Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 20:45

Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 20:45
Kanga1 Ozhumvee, you may not / will not get text messages from a carrier other than Telstra, You can send text to any carrier.

Regards

TDB
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Follow Up By: Kanga1 - Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 23:47

Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 23:47
Cheers Trevor, we will give it couple of dummy runs and see what works, we have friends with different carriers. Kanga.
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Follow Up By: TTTSA - Monday, Jul 26, 2010 at 16:17

Monday, Jul 26, 2010 at 16:17
Pretty sure you can go to the Iridium website and send a message free.

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Reply By: JohnnyC - Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 21:30

Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 21:30
I have a 9505a phone with a company called "satellite phone sales", costs about $35 p/month and it can receive free SMS via thier website, so i can leave it on all the time and it costs no extra.
I'm sure i don't pay for incoming calls and outgoing are about $2 a minute, which is cheap if you are in trouble.
Have to dial 00118816 prefix to call it but it is a lot cheaper than telstras local number system.
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Follow Up By: Kanga1 - Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 23:44

Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 23:44
Hi Johnny, we used to have a plan for a Sat phone, but the $400 + per year plus call costs for the use we had out of it, I think it would be false economy for us IMO, we will try the Next G SIM for a bit and see how we go. Cheers, Kanga.
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Reply By: Scoops - Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 22:51

Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 22:51
Hi Kanga1,

Did exactly the same as you last year travelling with the Next G sim in 9505A.

One thing to be aware of which caught me out travelling last year. I was trying to call the insurance company as we rolled our camper, found out that if you try and dial the 13 or 1300 numbers from the sat phone it totally gets confused and can't route the call to the correct area, spent allot of time being transferred around wasting expensive sat call dollars. I'd recommend getting the direct indial numbers for any numbers you may need before you leave.

Cheers
Steve
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Follow Up By: Kanga1 - Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 23:39

Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 at 23:39
Hi Scoops, I hadn't thought of that, we keep insurance policy details for everything in our laptop, might be worthwhile updating it with proper 8 digit phone numbers for the Companies we use. Cheers Scoops, good tip.
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Reply By: Member - Graham H (QLD) - Friday, Jul 09, 2010 at 12:05

Friday, Jul 09, 2010 at 12:05
The call costs are $4.77 for a 1 minute call Charges in 30sec blocks.

Optus and Vodafone CANT TEXT YOU I have friends on both an did a trial run and they didnt connect.

Presumably that would also apply to Dodo and Virgin and any of the other smalltime operators. Not sure about 3 as they default to the old Telstra system.


Make sure your sim is INTERNATIONALLY ROAMED or it wont work It also has to be on a plan with Telstra PREPAID WONT work.

Had mine for 3 years and it has only cost me the one 1 minute call and the above is the charge on my bill.

It usually takes at least a month, usually 2 before it appears

EG Made call in November was on January's bill

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Follow Up By: Member - The Bushwhackers -NSW - Friday, Jul 09, 2010 at 19:15

Friday, Jul 09, 2010 at 19:15
Hi Graham

I think you would be correct about DODO, they have been trying to sell me a mobile plan for ages (I have DODO internet). They are just billers, they use the Optus network.

Cheers, Dave

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Follow Up By: Member - John R (cQld) - Friday, Jul 09, 2010 at 21:31

Friday, Jul 09, 2010 at 21:31
Graham, am I correct in assuming that whatever Telstra plan you have, satellite call costs are not covered by the "monthly included calls" amount?

Thanks, John

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Follow Up By: Member - Graham H (QLD) - Friday, Jul 09, 2010 at 21:42

Friday, Jul 09, 2010 at 21:42
Yes you are Just like 1900 13 and 1800 calls from a Cell phone they are called premium calls and are rarely part of your plan.

I am on A $49 cap and none of them are included.

Also as the charge is what Iridium charge Telstra

It is always a seperate charge and applies for both inward and outward calls for the use of the satellite service.
It is only available because Telstra have a billing arrangement with them.

You can of course get a satellite plan with Telstra but why bother when you can do it this way on a call by call basis.

$3.77 for 3 years is a pretty good deal I thought.

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Follow Up By: Member - Graham H (QLD) - Saturday, Jul 10, 2010 at 08:57

Saturday, Jul 10, 2010 at 08:57
Correction to first post Should have been $3.77 for 1 minute


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Reply By: Mike DiD - Friday, Jul 09, 2010 at 20:19

Friday, Jul 09, 2010 at 20:19
Here are some actual satphone call costs

30 sec = 2.06
1 min = 3.85
2:30 min = 9.22
3:00 min = 11.01
9:00 min = 32.49

Calls were made on 20 June, bill arrived on 27 June.
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Follow Up By: Member - Graham H (QLD) - Friday, Jul 09, 2010 at 22:13

Friday, Jul 09, 2010 at 22:13
I got my 1 minute cheap then didnt I.


LOL
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Reply By: Member - Mel D (NSW) - Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 13:13

Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 13:13
Have been following this thread and bought an Iridium 9505A phone and a NextG post paid plan from Telstra just as recommended on this forum. A Telstra card from a friends phone worked just fine in the Iridium but my new Telstra SIM card is not recognised by the Iridium phone, which just asks me to "Insert Card". Puzzling, as the card seems to be and look like the card that Geoff from Newcastle pictured in his reply of 5/03/2010. What has happened? Has Telstra woken up to what we were doing and modified the card so the Iridium doesnt recognise it?
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Follow Up By: George_M - Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 14:44

Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 14:44
Check to see that you have "International Roaming" activated on your new sim, Mel.

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Follow Up By: Member - Graham H (QLD) - Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 15:29

Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 15:29
Yes I have just been outside talking to my mate who is going across the Simpson iin 10 days so I lent him my 9505A.
He put his new, as in a week old Telstra NEXT G sim in it and rang me.

I also rang him back and it all worked fine.

We of course didnt answer each other to keep the costs down but it rang OK both ways so must be your sim is not enabled.

When you ring TO the satfone a nice lady butts in and says, "One moment there will be a short delay while your call is connected".

Then it rings in single beeps Like

-------------- -------------- ----------------

Not ----------- ------------- ---------------- ------------ like a normal phone. Hope thats helpful


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Follow Up By: Mike DiD - Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 20:31

Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 20:31
"which just asks me to "Insert Card". Puzzling, as the card seems to be and look like the card that Geoff from Newcastle pictured in his reply of 5/03/2010."
- The phone isn't recognising the SIMcard at all. Try putting any other SIMcard from another carrier in it - it should be recognised, but then it won't register to the Iridium network.




" What has happened? Has Telstra woken up to what we were doing and modified the card so the Iridium doesnt recognise it?"
- the only reason that Telstra SIM cards can be used in an Iridium Satphone is because Telstra has set up a billing arrangement guarranteeing to pay Iridium for any calls made from Satphones using Telstra SIM cards. It's not accidental thing.
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Follow Up By: Member - Graham H (QLD) - Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 21:04

Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 21:04
Did you put it in correctly and clip it down.

Is it internationally roamed

It wont work if its not but usually says INVALID SIM


Sounds like its not inserted correctly as mine only says that if I turn it on with no sim in it

What Mike said above is correct Try any sim in it and it should say invalid if it sees it.
If not its not inserted correctly.
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Follow Up By: Member - Mel D (NSW) - Monday, Jul 26, 2010 at 15:08

Monday, Jul 26, 2010 at 15:08
Thank you all for your helpful input. I hadnt RTFM! Once I found I had to slide the SIM tray to the right to lock it down, the SIM was recognised, the registration went through, and the phone could take calls. And yes, it worked with the Telstra SIM with roaming activated. A happy ending. :-))

Re buying from offshore: I bought mine from the USA for about AUD 1200 including delivery. As they are an international phone they ought to be the same wherever you buy from and mine came looking new, with all the accessories etc. packed in original boxes. But you need to be wary of stolen phones which can be somehow disabled by Iridium.
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Follow Up By: Member - Graham H (QLD) - Monday, Jul 26, 2010 at 16:04

Monday, Jul 26, 2010 at 16:04
Hmmm makes a difference when u do it right LOL

Some have broken the sim holder cos its a bit fragile and have just put a bit of thin foam behind it to hold it down hard onto the pins which is where yours wasnt touching..

Have fun


YEs they can disable them just like stolen cellphones.


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Reply By: Member - Mary W NW VIC - Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 20:55

Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 20:55
I know this is a little lare in the thread but where do you buy your iridium phone and what is the likely cost?
Thanks,
Mary
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Follow Up By: Member - Graham H (QLD) - Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 21:01

Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 21:01
EBAY $1000 approx.

Or Telstra for about $1750 for a new one which they will try to put you on a $30 a month plan.

Just buy a phone ouright and use a sim as we do.

It works Well for us thats doing it right it does.


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Follow Up By: George_M - Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 21:04

Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 21:04
I bought mine on Ebay from a seller in Indonesia, Mary.

The unit appeared to be in its original packaging, and cost about A$900. This is a high risk way to acquire a satphone. I agonised about it for days before I took the plunge, but everything worked out ok (apart from when b!##dy Telstra wouldn't accept there was a fault on my GSM sim...).

You can buy a new 9505A from Telstra or another reseller for about $2000.

Good luck!!

George_M
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Follow Up By: Member - Graham H (QLD) - Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 21:17

Saturday, Jul 24, 2010 at 21:17
I think you will find 9505A is no longer sold. Thats what I was told by a dealer in Broome last year.

The new model is a 9555 and as I said is about $1750 from an Aussie dealer.

If you get your sim internationally roamed DONT TELL TELSTRA WHY you want it done Say you are going to Bali and want phone to work.

They wont admit the sim will work in a Satfone and actively discourage it.
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