Which Satelite Phone is best?

Hi John,

I don't know much about the other types of satellite phones but I have owned a "TELIT" satellite phone now for nearly 4 years. It is connected to the Vodafone network. In fact they told me that I bought the first one in Queensland. It has served me very well. It has been used extensively throughout the Northern Territory and remote parts of Western Queensland with my previous employment as a commercial opal buyer. Now I spend most of my time sailing and have also had full coverage 250 nautical miles from the Queensland coast. Have travelled the Gulf country, the Cape/Cooktown etc. and across the Plenty Highway and then down through Central Australia. Pretty expensive when they first came out at $1800 and calls made on the satellite network were $1.70 per minute ingoing or outgoing calls. I think they are a bit cheaper now. When I purchased the phone it was an experiment as to whether it would have coverage in the northern parts of Australia as the main satellites were positioned to cover the lower parts of the country. It has never been out of range, and has never let me down. It also has the advantage of being used as a standard digital mobile phone when I am within range of the towns that have normal mobile coverage.

Hi

I had an Erricsson R290 on the Globalstar network through their Australian agents, Vodafone. It worked well, but the phone became obsolete & a car kit was non existant. Due to the design of the Globalstar network, all phones car kits (with external antenna) are going to be very expensive.
I then went to the Iridium network with a Motorola 9505 through their Australian agents, Telstra (there are others). Car kits are cheap for this network, in fact the phone comes with one. So, I still have a portable phone for when I go walking and an in vehicle phone for when I'm driving. Still good coverage. I did buy a better external antenna though than what it comes with.
David

i have been using a Telit GSM/Globstar phone with Vodaphone for 2 years in the Kimberley. performance is erratic and generally unreliable. You have to be patient with it to get good results. The Telstra mobile sat service has a far better reputation in the this part of Australia.

BTW, the Vodafone GSM coverage is worthless as it doesn't have near the coverage in Outback towns as Telstra CDMA.

JohnS

I bought a second hand Motorola 9500 and have used it in the desert and other places. It works well but I do sometimes get a bit of voice echo when in conversation. I have a $30 month plan with Telstra which incorporates $10 month calls if you use the phone. A two years contract applies with Telstra but that is no issue. I also have a CDMA phone and a HF Radio

I have much the same comments as Willem. When I bought my Motorola it was the best deal as it came with the car kit, even both it and Globalstar were the same price. The other two advantages of Motorola at the time were: the iridium satellites are closer to earth and so the delay in the conversation is not as great and secondly the motorola phone is able to be used whilst the car is travelling. To use the globalstar phone you had to stop the car and get out to use the phone. I would go for the iridium network.

Brooksy
www.40series.com

I have both Telit Globalstar ( 2 concurrently) and now one Iridium telstra Motorola 9505.

I and others used the Telits in remote locations over a period of 2 years and my advice is - Do NOT get the globalstar service. It is totally totally totally unreliable.

TOTALLY UNRELIABLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The telstra service is much better, better handsets, better antenna systems adn more robust coverage.

Sean

I could not disagree more about Globalstar network. I had telit 500 sat unit for past 3 years and it has been SUPER RELIABLE. I used it in Pilbara (gorges,hills etc.) with same degree of reliabillity as in the midlle of Great Sandy desert. I don't know how to explain this discrepancy about globalstar service.