Satphone call charges have come down slightly

Footy,

Just dug my old T bill out from the Boy's Trip when we used the 9505a with a Telstra Next G SIM.

30sec - $2.03
1min - $3.79
1min30s - $5.55


Fair bit dearer than Willem's - but horses for courses - unfortunately I'm not in the sticks as much as he is!



Tim

Thanks, Tim. How old is the bill?

Yeh same, $5.55 for minute and a half on a GSM card in a Satphone, on $20 plan, i dont think it matters what plan you are on it remains the same. Paul

mine was 6 weeks ago

Footy - Bill was a month old - calls from end of April this year.


Tim

Thanks for that Tim. Yes a fair bit dearer, but if only using it for occasional trips, the lack of a monthly charge would compensate. You'd have to make about 75 mts in calls to get even by my estimation, even with your free$10 a month free calls, assuming that the 75mts were made all at once :))

Paul, I was referring to the Telstra satphone access plan that Willem is on.

Ok thanks Paul.

I just did a spreadsheet comparing the costs as I bought a 9505 last week that I already know works on GSM and Telstra NextG Global Roaming SIMs.

Lets assume you are using the $10 free calls as part of the number of calls you make if you decide to go with a minimal account at $30 a month

50 calls across a year are about $29 or $25 with no plan
Half minutes of say 240 - two hours total $237 under a plan and $480 with a SIM. It is about that point that both systems give a phone annual cost of just over $500. Of course if you don't use it it is cheaper with the SIM, if you use it a lot the plan is cheaper.

The break even in my mind is about that point but you have to use your sat phone across EVERY month to do that or the number of calls and amount of time of calls has to go up to warrant an account. Having an account I know some use it every month just to try to justify that but you are just adding Telstra revenue unless they are warranted and you needn't have it.

Of course, being on a spreadsheet it could be wrong but I did download the Telstra charges document.