Satellite/GSM Phone?

Tom,

I've missed the cryptic message.

You can email me privately

jimbest at bestoffroad dot net dot au

Jim.

Thanks John.

Ummm Errr??? What Telstra Sat Phone are you referring to when you say "No go mate, nothing"??

Telstra only sell Sat Phones on the Iridium network.

Somehow me thinks your referring to possibly a Global$hit Sat Phone and have your phones and companies a bit mixed up???

But aren't you with Globalstar John?

John, Oops, From what i understand, telstra use land towers and provide a pretty ordinary service. AST, is the better provider, a truly global network. Telstra is only australia wide and yeah, no go mate, nothing. Telsra are not that good!!

As John said Telstra sat phone use the Iridium Network.

It's the only one that has complete satellite coverage of all of Australia plus 200nm off the coast.

It is usable worldwide with appropriate account.

Iridium has 8 satellites that cover Australia, Thruya only has one satellite to cover australia same as Globalstar.

Do as search of the forum you will find numerous topics on satphones here.

Iridium is the only reliable one.

Cheers
Ross

Hi Laurie No Telstra/Iridium, always have been.
Maybe your thinking of Jumbo's phone as she has Global$hit or the clubs sat phone perhaps??

Cheetah, Telstra uses towers for its terrestrial (land based) phone networks either the 3 G or the Next G networks.
As good as the Next G network is it certainly does not cover 100 percent of the country and Telstra has never claimed it does.

Your comments "A mate met a serious accident just out of Barrow Creek a while back, no reception on mobile phones so he pulled out his Telstra sat phone. NO go mate, nothing. How convenient, luckily no one died waiting for help"
Are suggesting that he did not have reception on his "Telstra Sat Phone"??
This phone would most likely be an Motorola phone on the Iridium Satellite Network as Telstra are a reseller of Iridium services just like AST, no difference between AST Iridium and Telstra Iridium services as they use the same sat system, the "Iridium" satellite network.
(Price maybe a different matter between service providers)

Maybe you should ask your mate exactly what brand of satellite phone he was using as unless it was "broke" the Telstra/AST/whoever reseller of Iridium services is the most reliable satellite service in the country with the best coverage.

Doesn't AST provide a global service and telstra only Australia wide.??. Do AST rely on land towers as do telstra?. I thought AST had direct link to orbiting satellites and did not require towers?? I was told you will get fade outs with telstra because of the signal having to find and travel through a tower first??. Hence the reason I went AST. Will find out about mates phone. He told me he walked into Telstra with no knowledge and asked for their best sat phone. He was more than annoyed when it did not work. I would assume their best is the one mentioned here, maybe he was had??

Cheetah a Satellite service works on satellites going around the world.
Mobile phones work on land based towers.

AST and Telstra and a few other companies sell satellite services on the Iridium network that has nothing to do with land based towers.
Same sat service different billing company.

As I said in the beginning your mate needs to find out what he bought and tell you so your all on the same track.
Sounds like he asked for a phone and has a non sat phone, if you have an Iridium phone then you should know what its all about.

Ill reverse it, been a while since i got mine. AST,i think have access to land based satellites as well as orbiting satellites, Telstra dont. This is the reason for the delay when talking, ringing etc with AST, as will go through a land base first. With these capabilities it gives better coverage than Telstra, canopies etc. Can anyone clarify this.???. Mine will work anywhere in the world, why wont Telstra if they all operate on the same satellites??

There's no such thing as a land based satellite.

Iridium phones such as the Motorola 9500, 9505 and 9555 are all satellite phones.

ie they use the orbiting satellites to communicate.

The service provider is Iridium, Telstra AST etc are just resellers. AST and Telstra use exactly the same satellites. See here:

AST Iridium Satellite

and here:

Telstra Satellite

I have a telstra sim with international roaming in my Motorola 9500, I can use it anywhere in the world not just in australia.

So if your mate had problems connecting to the Iridium network then I suggest its a case of user problem.

Is the phone a satphone?
What brand model?
Do they have a satellite contract or just using their 3G/GSM sim card?

If the 3G/GSM sim has international roaming enabled?

As much as I dislike paying for Telstra services (or lack thereof) both the satphone and 3G mobile I have leave everything else I've used for dead.

Cheers
Ross

Ross that new 9555 phone looks good first time I have seen the detail on that one.

"Iridium has 8 satellites that cover Australia, Thruya only has one satellite to cover australia same as Globalstar"

Oh? Iridium was set up with 66 sats in polar orbits, Globalstar (G*) with 48 in more equatorial orbits, and all of these pass over Australia at some time. Iridium has more sats because they cover the entire globe from pole to pole; G* was only set up to cover the majority of the population. There is actually a better chance of having a G* sat overhead in Australia than an Iridium, but as more and more of the G* sats have a cactus transmission antenna, far less chance of communication! With either system, you would only have sight to any one sat for a max of 15 mins.

The Thuraya system uses a geostationary sat, which to us doesn't move, so you either have permanent reception at a given location, or if not, then you need to move to somewhere that does. Easier said than done of course if you're stuck in some sort of hole.

Cheers, John

And at anyone time there is at least 8 satellites giving coverage of all of Australia.

That's why everyone recommends Iridium and one of the problems with the Thuraya system. There is no backup when that satellite fails.

Cheers
Ross

If there are only 66 satellites covering the whole planet there won't be 8 over Oz - we just ain't that big. And sure the Thuraya is just one satellite, but it has been designed to be more robust than any one Iridium satellite (their other 2 satellites are still going strong).

Cheers, John

"Hi Laurie No Telstra/Iridium, always have been.
Maybe your thinking of Jumbo's phone as she has Global$hit or the clubs sat phone perhaps??"

John, thought I would let you know that I have been using a SPOT Satellite Personal Tracker for about a month now. It operates on the Globalstar network. It acts as my epirb, but this me great functionality as it allows friends & family to follow our travels via GoogleMaps.

We also use the autotracking facility. Heidi takes it MTBing. When in range with my mobile phone, I can log in and check her progress. The autotracking records her position every 10 minutes. It has the occasional miss but considering the terrain she is riding through, we find the hit rate to be very high.

Of course, you are using your sat phone for voice. so you need a service that can give you a more constant coverage. Personally I have little need for voice comms when out in the bush. It is great in an emergency, but with SPOT I can use the 'epirb' functionality in a real emergency.

We will be away again next week. I will send you a link to follow our travels via email.

Hi Laurie
Spot would be very handy when riding the bike being so small its easily carried.
No worries send me the link.

Cheers

jimbest at bestoffroad dot net dot au

Thanks,

Jim.

Thanks David,

I should have looked there first.

Jim.

My 9505a with a Telstra sim in it works quite well without even going outside so dont know why yours wouldnt work.

The Ericsson phones that Globalsat used were dual mode GSM/Satellite phones. However Telstra wouldnt have sold them as they were the opposition (if you could call it that).

Most Telstra shops dont deal with satelliite stuff as I was told by my local shop so dont know what your mate got sold but if he got the Telstra rep I got on Friday he could have ended up with anything.
I was trying to get a sim card to run a USB Sierra 880U aircard.
The guy said they dont exist but are you sure he said cos we have a 880E express card so thats what it must be.
I said they are different and had he ever tried to put an express card in a USB slot.
He said whats the difference By this time after 40mins I was fuming so told him if I shoved then in a certain place he would soon notice the difference. Needless to say i had to ring back again on Moday to get what I wanted. Only took another 54mins.
And Telstra are talking about cutting staff. Jeeeeeez ROFL