Ringing an Iridium Sat phone?? -It hurts

Hi Axel,
I found that TR Telecommunication provider. Up to now, that would be other option. I'm doing more research. From 1st. of this months Telstra should have release pre-paid Next-G SIM cards....I don't know if that happened, or if that is only promise....

Next G dont have SIM cards, they are wideband CDMA and theyre just prepaid phones, no SIM cards. to my knowledge that is

Gday D, Whitepony and all,

I have sporadic problems with my globalstar, usually I get service, but sometimes I have to wait from a couple of minutes up to about 15. I am sure the incoming calls to it are charged at the same rate as if it was a normal mobile phone.

Not that we have really tested it, it is usually turned off until I want to use it. If anyone calls, they leave a message and I get back to them.

It will be interesting to see how they (G*) handle the CDMA when the plug is pulled, as half of the phone's uses will be lost......half price on the bills maybe...lol

Cheers Andrew

I'm with you on this one Andrew. When I was working I had to ring in on 2 hourly scheds. If we didn't they would start looking for us. We used to start ringing about 15 mins early so that we got the call through in time. The problem is definitely worse the further North you go. I spoke to G* about it and they have re-aligned the remaining satellites to give optimum coverage to the more populated areas??? Makes sense when you consider that you are most likely to need it more when you are away from populated areas!!!

We very nearly chucked the phone in favour of a Telstra Iridium but decided that now that we are retired, we can live with the waiting period for a signal. G* gave us free rental and half-price calls for 4 months when I had a bitch about it. If it continues to be patchy I'll be ringing them again and pushing for further discounts.

Cheers,

Russ

Yes agreed Russ 15 plus minutes is no issue, especially when your partner has just hit the deck with a heart attack and you need to get medical assistance now!!!

Kind of defeats the purpose of carrying a phone for emergency purposes when it takes 15 plus minutes just to get signal or it won't maintain that signal and allow you to tell someone what the problem is.

"I spoke to G* about it and they have re-aligned the remaining satellites to give optimum coverage to the more populated areas???"

Ummm!!! don't we normally go to the least populated areas?? Thats why we carry Sat phones?
Besides that advice about moving the Sat's conflicts with other peoples advice from Global$hit, they don't have fuel in most of them to allow a reposition and most are in a decaying orbit which is whats reducing the coverage.
I would suggest that its just more crap from Global$hit.
Do a search on here plenty of info on Global$hit.

My 9500 connected through Telstra and rung from a Telstra homephone costs the same, ringing from another provider ie Optus etc will probably cost much more.
Tell them to SMS and you can call back from a public phone or if an emergency the satphone.

My Telstra Iridium with the 9500 also has Messagebank Home Messages.

Haven't checked cost thereof. Telstra sccess is $30 per month with $10 free time and has been so since 2003 when I bought the phone.

Cheers

I've got a Telstra GSM SIM in my Iridium 9500. It has never received any SMSes. I posted about it some time back and somebody said that you can only get SMSes using the Iridium SIM.

If anybody can tell me otherwise, I'd appreciate it.

-geoff

The first 5 sections of this document give details for the Telstra Mobile Satellite Service for which you pay a monthly fee.

"2.7 We supply you with a specific Telstra Mobile satellite service SIM card. The telephone number for your service will begin with an 014714, 014715 or 014716 prefix. If you access the Telstra Mobile satellite service using the SIM card for a Telstra Mobile (GSM) service, higher charges apply as set out in the charges section below. If you place your Telstra Mobile satellite service SIM card in a cellular mobile service handset/device and make calls, you are charged at Telstra Mobile satellite service rates as set out in this section."

"You cannot apply your included calls amount to charges incurred using:
(a) a Telstra Mobile (GSM) SIM card (for a service with a telephone number beginning with “04”) in your satellite handset/device;

Section 6 covers using a Telstra GSM SIM card in a satellite phone while in Australia.

Calls to a fixed mobile or 12, 1800, 1300 or 190 service -
- Connection $0.40
- $2.00 per 30 sec or part.

Receiving calls
- $2.00 per 30 sec or part.

People calling you just dial your normal Mobile number and so they pay the normal costs to dial your Mobile - whether they're calling from Telstra, Optus or a payphone.

Sorry that link did not work, just copy and paste.
Its a PDF file so you can save it and print etc.

Ahh OK Mike, they pay they normal mobile rate and you get charged the additional $2.00 per 30 sec to your Sat / defacto GSM account.
So it costs you $4 bucks a minute incoming and outgoing?

Yes