Help with a satphone (wich one)

Just what ive read by no means an expert....irridium better coverage picks more satelites etc but globalstar can switch to didgital coverage when available plus use as satphone neither are totally 100% coverage but the best avail at the monentMany others on this forum with first hand experience.

Yeah I'm not realy interested in cdma coverage as well only need it to book hotel rooms for customers out in the bush when were picking them up and just in case I break down but beter coverage would be prefered.

Hi Sam,
For me the Iridium network is the go. I've never found a spot they don't work.
I've got a Motorola Iridium 9500 and it works great. Only flaw for me is it will receive SMS messages but not send them. The later models address this shortcoming.
If your getting a new phone then a Motorola Iridium 9505 would be the go.
Some have mentioned the ability of Globalstar to connect to either the CDMA or GSM networks. I have a piece of Motorola kit on my 9500 that will attempt connection to the GSM network first, if that's not available then it goes to the Iridium network.
The ability to connect to CDMA is only a short term advantage as this network is going the way of the Dodo.

Geoff.

Hi Sam

I have been using Globalstar for 7 years now and they are great. My phone is the Telit and has not missed a beat.

Regards Derek.

I have an old Motorola 9500 through Telstra via the Iridium satellite.

It has worked faultlessly for some years now and I have never had an issue with it. Have used it overseas as well.

I am on a $30pm plan with $10 free calls. Used it extensively this last trip making necessary calls.

The newer 9505 Motorola is supposed to be the go.

Iridium... Has never failed me........

Hi Sam,

From the SatPhoneUser Yahoo Group recently:
In other areas, there has been a flury of press releases and rummors
about globalstar, the short version in my opinion is that they are
in a hurry to find funding to get into a different service (there is
confliting info on what this may be but I read some FCC filings
where they ask for new frequencies and say they would release their
current ones). The current service is likely to be dumped in a year
or two at most, that is, if Globalstar does not go under first.
Their phones and service are now a bargain, but keep in mind that
you may have a paperweight even if globalstar stays in service.

I'm with Iridium n & have been for 2 years using a TR Telecom account. I'm just in the process of cancelling my account with TRTelecom (competition to Telstra) and I've added another $10 casual GSM account to my business group, set it up for international roaming and I'm using that in my satphone. For intermittent use the $200+ I save on rental covers a lot of calls. (Calls are $3 a minute using this method, and you are charged for incoming calls also - but I don't use mine for incoming calls anyway so it doesn't matter.)

Dave

Yep another vote for iridium.
Thats only because thats what Ive got and know nothing about globalstar.

For my usage:

Telstra would be the most expensive but has some features I dont.

Using the gsm sim is probably the cheapest way, depending on how many out and incoming calls, it will cost up to $2.36 per 30 secs for incoming/outgoing calls.

I'm with TRT, slightly different features than telstra and about $150 a year less than telstra, bugger all really.

Somewhere here on eo are two articles on satphones, one is excellent and explains the different features between telstra iridium and iridium.
The other one is very inaccurate as it doesnt represent the real world usage.
Dean

My vote

The motorola 9500 on IRIDIUM $30 month plus calls.

Allan
Gold Coast