Satellite phones

I was talking to a gentleman (that's being kind) at a CB shop today who recons it's worth looking at hiring one and splitting the cost between all involved in the trip.

Obviously this could get tricky if some will not be with you for the whole trip, and working out "who pays what" may need some discussion, but these issues aside, the cost may not be so bad if split with others.

If for work only, then at least it's a tax deduction.

Motherhen
I looked at the idea of haveing a dual system phone as like the Globalstar ,CDMA/Sat and would have got the Subsidty because as part of my business i do go to remote coverage area's but my decision was no because shortly all you would have left on that phone is Satellite cover, CDMA will be gone in 18 months, Somthing new and better will replace it before then, maybe G3/Sat so I would be hanging off until then.
And also you would not get the subsidy just for very occasional trips or holiday journey's to the outback, Of course you could get a 1 system Satellite phone but I don't see any subsidies there either.What ever we buy these days is obsolete in a very short time , some will scoff at this prediction but CDs are going to vanish ,I don't use them anymore in my car for music, I use an SD card of 1GB about the size of a 20c bit with 320 songs on it .

Doug

Hi there Motherhen

we've just gotten a Sat phone and did qualify for the subsidy, the subsidy is running out [so I am told] because there is only a certain amount of money allocated for it. We chose after much research and comparison, a Motorola Irridium Sat phone, which is just purely a sat phone, we are on a $30 month plan, the phone cost us $500 after the subsidy, and we got a heap of extras with it. We decided against the globalstar as we felt the call costs too high on the gsm/sat, and the gsm network was vodaphone and we felt we wouldn't use that network.

Travelling into the outback is a valid reason, provided you are able to provide them with your upcoming trips, if you are going for a one off trip totalling say 8 weeks, you won't qualify, but if you provide them with all the trips you intend to do over the course of the year, they total them up. When working it out, the fella told me to include weekends, as well as long trips and add them all up, provided it was about 6 months worth, you should qualify. You also need to make it clear that you intend to travel for the next year or so as well.

call costs are on the telstra countrywide, not sure about sim cards, but, we believe if you have international roaming you might be able to use a normal sim.

Hope all that is clear, feel free to contact me if you'd like to chat further about it.

cheers

Lyn

Hi Motherhen

I just got my sat Phone. I live in Melbourne and the subsidy is not just about living outside the gsm/cdma network. I detailed our trips/weekends and was able to get the subsidy.
I got the same phone as Lyn and it was the best package, as it came with all of the accessories you could need.
You can have a sat phone if you buy it outright not attached to a plan. You need to be careful that a connection fee does not apply everytime you want to use it or you could get the GSM/SAT phone and go on a plan and use the sim as your normal digital phone and put it into your sat phone when travelling.

Good luck

Ads

Two years ago I applied for a subsidy for the school at which I was the Outdoor Education Teacher, we got the subsidy and the phone, no worries.

I applied again for my own business two months ago, and despite specifying much the same areas and longer durations I was knocked back.

Go figure

Hi Motherhen,
I have a Globalstar Sat Phone with GSM which I got with subsidy. I chose the Globalstar as it was the only phone for which you could get a car kit (about $1200).
I used to pay 15.00 per month but that has gone up to 25.00 now. I still believe it is good value. With Globalstar you can nominate (i think) 3 months in any one year that you wont use the phone and they don't charge you for it.
The call costs to me were irrelevant as it is only really to be used for emergencys.
Mine has well and truly paid for itself in the two times I used it in 4 years. I snapped an axle on the Cruiser in the middle of nowhere and callled the RAC.
Mine doesn't have a sim card that is uasable on anything else.
I do also have a second GSM phone with car kit and have recently installed a CDMA with car kit. I have a HF radio and UHF radio too. There is not much room left in the front of the car.
Good luck!

Motherhen,

I bought a secondhand Motorola last year before my trip. Cost me $1000 but I didn't bother with the plan. I arranged global roaming on my Telstra sim and used the plastic card the sim was attached to originally to insert it into the phone. A bit of sticky tape on the back works ok. The call costs were about $3.50 for 30 secs from memory but we only used it when we needed to and in the scheme of things it was nothing. We had no emergencies but it was nice to talk to the kids on Father's Day and to tell my sons about the huge fish I'd caught etc. We now take it with us on weekends into the high country. Sometimes we have had situations that would have prevented our trip but with communications we can still disappear and keep in touch.

Hope this helps.

Ken

Beatit,

I think you are off the Xmas card list with that photo. Liz was thrilled !!!!!

Ken