which sat phone to go for

Thanks ruth
we'll call in and see you in birdsville about the middle of July, think I will have seen enough desert for a while then, at least until the bug bites again. I'll get the 9505 and hopefully get the subsidy. I'll get a cdma soon too instead of my gsm. so with the new phones and the uhf and hf my comms are sorted out for the trip.
Ian

Hi Oleg ,
I saw your post about the Sat Phone subsidy being available if you are out of range for three months of the year . I am , but I do not know how I would prove this to Telstra or the government .
How do you do it ?
Thanks ,
Willie .

Willie,
You don't have to prove it. They take your word for it.
In fact the people in that agency are very friendly and if you do not meet some criteria, they will give you some ideas how to get it approved.
Regards,
Oleg.

thanks for all your comments it helps when making a decision of this nature. the people selling the qualconn/globalstar system said their sats were lower, figures eh!
I'll go for the 9505 with iridium, and keep it as a dedicated sat phone for trips, it should last longer this way and it seems the choice of most everyone.
hopefully I might get the subsidy as I will sort of be working out there, writing etc,and wrote a long detailed explanation of what I will be doing.
I have a gsm phone and its contract runs out in june. so I'll get a cdma phone next, and have the best of both worlds.
happy trips everyone and thanks again. I leave sydney on the 25th march so I'm getting real excited now.
best regards
Ian

Steve L
Good to offer corrections, hoever always good to know the facts. Iridium satellites are lower than Globalstar 780Kms vs 1414Kms, however any gain is lost with the signal needing to land in the USA at Iridiums earth station and be transmitted back to Australia. Globalstar have the earth station facilities here in Australia.
Few other facts,
The DATA speed on the Iridium service is only one quarter the speed of the Globalstar service. (4 times faster or 1/4 the airtime cost). Both services offer a data compression service that can increase perceived performance by up to 4 times.
The Globalstar QUALCOMM dual mode service is fully compatible with the Australian telecommunications network that allows your single phone number to work in terrestrial CDMA (telstra) and satellite mode(Globalstar).
From my experience the perception of problems with Globalstar occur with peoples lack of differentiation between a cellular service and a satellite service and this handsets ability to offer both. The carkit option when correctly installed works excellently and allows the best of both worlds. The Globalstar product appears to have definitely improved with the new products and services, I still believe they are a definte viable alternative.

Hi
I was a Globalstar cdma/sat phone user (erickson phone - that's another story)!
Problem is that when you need satellite you may really need it & from my experience Globalstar service was very unreliable!
I hope your experience doesn't duplicate mine!!!

Willem that sounds like a damn good phone. LOL.

LOL

Hey, where ya been Big Fella? Missed you at Murray Sunset but got the message, thanks.

Hiya Willem
I went up the High Country, Tom Groggin / Davies Plains / Hells Gate down to Swifts Creek.
Bloody Brilliant the place was dead quiet, real surprise expecting heaps of bodies being long weekend.
No hassles at all could camp anywhere and no issue with passing others on the tracks.
Weather was brilliant about 30 every day, nights a little cool as you would expect at altitude.
Just love that area had a Brumby bolt past our camp last night in the dark scared the $hit out of the kids. LOL.

Looks like you had a good time at MS. LOL.