Help - Iridium Satphone problem

George_M,

Stupid question, but have you got the phone connected to a valid account for both Sat & GSM ?

N0 workee cause no payee for sat connectee ,,

Oh dear, George...and you are too young to have a Senior Moment.....lol


You need to establish an account with Telstra.

Phone this secret number 1800 632 995


Cheers

It definately sounds like an account problem. It should register if its a valid Telstra card on roaming. (no prepaid cards)

Ok - now I need to ask a REALLY stupid question....

A search of the archives on this subject indicates that some forum members are using Motorolla 9500/9505A satphones with their "normal" mobile GSM or Next G sims. The activation of "global roaming" seems to be a prerequisite for this to work.

I rang Telstra (thanks Willem) who informed me that I will need an exclusively Iridium sim; and that although the sims look the same, my GSM/NextG sim will not allow a Motorola 9505A to connect to the Iridium network.

Any further advice before I go an have a drink and a good lie down?

George_M

I have a Motorola 9505A and it works fine with a Telstra GSM SIM and international roaming.

A Next G is unlikely to work with the satphone as it uses a USIM (look the same but different technology).

A GSM should work as long as the SIM is not locked to the Telstra network, is not locked to the handset it was purchased with and is international roaming enabled.

George I don't have the Iridium but the other mobs phone, but I bought mine second hand so I had to get the ownership details changed then organise an account all up cost about $350 over and above the purchase price. As per the above posts if you have a valid account with the sat phone carrier then ok. Otherwise if you already have a valid account attached to the sim card you are trying to use then that will only get you GSM or NextG.

Have a look at this link to see if you did it correctly

http://www.jimshire.aussiewide.com/

Bob

Hi George,

I also have the 9505A and I don't have an Iridium account. Just tried both my GSM and NextG SIM cards in and both work fine.

My gues is that your international roaming may not be enabled as this is the same message I got before Telstra enabled it.

I hope it all works out for you soon mate.

Regards,
Brett

To the experts that say it doesn't work all I can suggest is that they redo their research.

Starting at around about page 21 of the document at:
Telstra's mobile sat terms & conditions.

The cheeky bastards have recently put the int roaming method call costs up to $4 a minute too I notice.

Still cheaper than having an account though.

Dave

Thank you all for your feedback and information.

The consensus is that the 9505A should connect to the Iridium network if the GSM/NextG sim has global roaming activated.

Interestingly enough, the Telstra guy I spoke with on the number Willem posted said that this was not possible. On the other hand, the Telstra document posted by Dave shows that not only is it possible, but that Telstra expects customers to do so.

I'll go and camp at my local Telstra store on Saturday until this is fixed - just hope that this unit has not been "locked" to an offshore service provider.

Thanks again!

George_M