satphones query

thanks Steve for the info. iwas just a forward inquiry as I may have jumped the gun a little. My sil had not received the phone when he was speaking to me and he was not 100% what brand it was. By the way Steve my sil has now downloaded both Hema and Mud Maps on to the new ipad wifi gps cellular as you recommended. He thinks that is the best way to go for the future, but I will still use the old paper and compass as well. Will contact you via email about Caravan Track S.A way points at a later date. Thanks to all that have now got me going on more research and where to start - thanks Garry R

Either Globalstar or Thuraya, can't recall which, offers a hybrid mobile and satphone by the way.

This onehttp://www.sattransusa.com/thu-pho-xtdu.html Would cost
About $1500 for it and a years use whether you make calls or not

Only the oldest one doesnt

The oldest one, 9500 I believe, certainly does take your Telstra sim. Used it in mine for the last 12 years.

Yes it does but takes a credit card sized one. Forgot to mention that. Whereas the later ones you can just direct swap a standard sim card without having to carry the other bit as well.

An Iphone micro sim would also need an adaptor. Not sure if it would work though due to its pin configuration.

And usually only on IRIDIUM phones.

Seems very expensive to use it as an emergency only phone.

We had ours for nearly 2 years and using the Telstra Sim it cost us $8 for calls. We only had to make two short calls due to being late to arrive at certain places.
On your rates it would have cost $500 if we had the $125 per 6 month option

What's a new Iridium phone cost?
What's the per minute cost of calls and cost of msgs?

Let's compare apples with apples.

If you don't expect much use with Inmarsat you can buy 25 units. You can activate a voucher the moment you need it.

I expect to use all my airtime since I use it as a phone when there's no mobile coverage and I use it like a Spot Messenger to send OK messages. (A Spot 3 is around $200 capital cost and then USD 165 per year.) And I get reliable connections.

The OP asked about rates to use IN EMERGENCY for about 4 weeks a year, not as a regular use phone.

Therefore a S/H Motorola 9505A for $289 - $495 on Ebay would be a good buy and using your Telstra sim would be about $4 a minute.

An Iridium phone would get the best reception with 66 satellites giving all earth coverage.

I had mine for two years and sold it for what I paid for it when we finished travelling.
Always got a signal when I tested it but luckily only needed to use it twice.

Why would you be using Telstra LANDLINES with a Satellite phone to call in ???

It's no wonder you don't compare apples with apples given the extortionate cost of new Iridium/Motorola phones. And you don't appear to think this cost has an effect on the 2nd hand market.

The cost of emergency use of a phone apart from that is mainly a function of time used. How long do you think it takes to get through the 000 portal to speak to local police? How long to you think it takes to be talked through a way of getting your vehicle moving again, to deal with a medical trauma, to get directions to the nearest homestead with an RFDS box?

Iridium gives the best coverage? I suggest you do a thorough read through of posts about that on this forum. The geometry of the sat constellation provides an inbuilt limit; the closer to the equator you are the greater that limit. In practice, dropouts at the call handover are common.

Yes, some folk use their landline to call a satphone. Telstra price gouging means the connection to an Inmarsat device is expensive. But a free email is the workaround.

thanks for the info - I have found out it is an inmarsat pro and comes c/w a valid sim with credits for the next few months. It was used by a co-worker of my sil to go around oz and has no further use. It still works out cheaper than hiring than a satphone for 3 weeks at $20- per day plus calls. We are only using it for emergency only, should something happens to my health dramatically. Have looked through different threads and not found any current info dating for a long while. I now have my sil looking it the threads and discussions had. Yep every body has their opinion and different devices but the same out in general seems to keep coming out - thanks - garryr

I have found satellite phone plans and systems quite confusing.
That is why I was relieved to read that thread last night and thought I'd pass it on.

There are a lot of people that, for whatever reason, have no problem getting their heads around the different phones, satellites and plans, and good on them. It's annoying when someone asks a question because they don't know something and the information is given in a tone that seems to belittle the enquirer.

That link I quoted last night was so easy to understand. It was set out clearly and simply, a way that suits me.

I hope it helped you out.

Steve