100% cost increase in Telstra casual plan!

Letter arrived today.
Still the cheapest way to access the Iridium network with the added bonus of all calls,sms,mms included.

Hi

Could be wrong but suspect the "added bonus of all calls,sms,mms included" is not when you plug the Telstra SIM into a sat phone ..just a normal mobile. Use of the SIM in a Sat phone for calls, sms and mms will be additional and cost at least that of a Telstra sat phone plan ...quite expensive. If you travel a lot in remote areas and use a sat phone often for "normal" contact and not just an emergency (i.e. almost never) then you are better off with a "proper" sat plan.

Cheers
Greg

Cheers Greg and good spot....I failed to add the all important word " standard " which I noticed afterwards but as this revamped forum still doesn't have an edit button I didn't bother....if it does I can't see it.

So I wasn't expecting included calls while the sim is in the sat but only while it's in my Next G phone in mobile areas. I'll be very curious to see if Telstra have any hidden charges in their all included standard calls, mms, sms.

Have had my current Motorola 9505A for nearly 12 years and had a plan for many years when using it a lot and then a few years back the my usage dropped and the $10 thingy surfaced.....$10 was a bargain and $20 is still ok given the sim is shared between two phones.

The $10 is for connection only and all calls are in addition to that. What you have on your cell phone does not port across to the Satfone.

The cost of a call using a NORMAL Telstra sim OUT OF YOUR CELL PHONE is approx $4 a minute both in and out as its mainly the cost of the diversion to and from the cellular network.

So if someone rings you on the satfone YOU pay.

I dont know the cost if you are on the $10 plan but I saw the document some time ago and cant remember

No worries - yes $20 would appear still to be cheapest option for emergency use only. Best (well,cheapest upfront) Sat plan I can find is Telstra $35 (anyone found something better?).

As suggested before, now that the casual plan is $20 a few random calls every second month could make a proper plan a better option..it was borderline for me with the $10 Plan especially if you get even a few unsolicited calls/sms which you have to pay for.

Cheers
Greg

Cheapest is if you already have a Telstra mobile on a plan just swap the sim over when out of cellular range and need the Satfone.

Then it wont cost you anything unless you make a call or someone rings you.

Good information.

I did do this in the past, but found it too much of a hassle / inconvenient, but for others this will depend on how they use/carry their sat phone.

I keep the sat phone in a backpack which we use when doing walks in a national park or down to a gorge, etc - and as our "the cars on fire, just get out now" emergency pack. The mobile meanwhile is mounted in a cradle in the vehicle and used for navigation and to receive messages and calls on the go (when in range/towns).

Swapping the sime every time we went for a walk - or remembering to take the pack and the mobile (for the sim) if we had to get out of the car in an emergency was problematic.

I kept forgetting to either put the sim into the sat phone each time we went walking (making the sat phone useless), or forgetting to take it out of the sat phone and put it back into the mobile when we returned - meaning we missed receiving mobile messages/texts/emails when in a town, or I received them on the sat phone and racked up charges for it.

One other annoyance, is that the sim card size in the mobile and the sat phone are different, which meant having to use one of the sim adapters - which I found very fiddly to line up and insert into the sat phone.

For us, the $10/month plan was cheap for the convenience it provided.

For others with a different use though, your suggestion is a very good one.

John

Unforntuantely you can't use a pre-paid telstra sim with an Irridium sat phone - it must be post-paid (on a plan) with international roaming enabled.

John

I am currently in Switzerland.
You can call me on my international roaming prepaid Telstra phone number.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

Peter, would that call that be connecting to an Irridium sat phone via the Irriduium sat network though, or connecting via mobile/cell networks, or ... ?.

I ask, as I tried using a pre-paid telstra sim (with international roaming enabled) in my 9505a phone a few years ago and could get no connection. Moving to the post paid sim (as mentioned in a number of threads on this topic in the forum) worked perfectly for me.

I'd be interested to see if that is something that has changed recently or .... ? Pre-paid would be a definite option if I knew it was going to work on Irridium sat network connections here in Australia.

John

No, it is just a prepaid mobile, with roaming.
I understood that it is the roaming aspect that makes it usable in a sat 'phone?

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

No it isnt actually. The Telstra sim is only used as a method of charging and as Telstra provide Satellite coverage it allows you to use one of their plan sims as a charging medium.

As they dont provide prepaid sims for satellite coverage the ordinary prepaid sims wont work on it

Yes the sim must be internationally roamed but that. is not the main criteria. It just allows you to use the sim outside of the normal Telstra network. AFIAK anyway. The phone must also be unlocked as well I think. I had to get mine done before I went overseas as it was a lot cheaper to buy a local sim in each country that use my home sim even when roamed.

Hi

22 November 2015

Cheers
Greg