Satphone plans

Submitted: Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 12:21
ThreadID: 78073 Views:2902 Replies:5 FollowUps:6
This Thread has been Archived
Some time ago (and now archived) a member asked about cost effective Satphone plans.

Lots of people, including myself suggested the Telstra post paid option for Iridium phones where you can use a Telstra internationally enabled SIM in the phone. No extra monthly fees bla bla bla.

In practice this approach is less attractive that it appears. The main problems that I encountered are

1)SMS between the phone and Optus and Vodaphone only works sometimes

but more importantly

2)You have to pay for incoming calls at $4.00 per minute, and people call you for all sorts of reasons, including to sell you stuff you don't want, thinking it is just a mobile call. Consequently you tend to leave it off or tell people to SMS you.

Both Motherhen and Peter Horne [Krakka] suggested TR Telecom's plan.

This is great. $30 per month if it is activated, $15 per month if not. When Activated you get $10 of calls included. The best part is that they bill daily and don't mind how many times you turn it on or off.

Effectively this means it is $1 per day when activated and 50c per day when not activated with 33c of calls per day included when activated.
I asked if I could activate it on Friday then deactivate it on Monday on a regular basis and the answer was "sure, why not, we have lots of customers that do that"

What a great cost effective service. I now have a dedicated number and can leave both both phons on all the time ( Sat and Telstra). Now when people call me they pay for it. That should be "reduce the number of incoming calls".


Thanks guys.
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Reply By: Motherhen - Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 13:37

Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 13:37
Hi Boobook

Thanks for the feedback.

Motherhen
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Follow Up By: PeterInSa - Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 22:04

Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 22:04
I thought if your family (kids) were on their my hour they could call a Telstra Sat phone for Free for their 20 minutes. Does that still cost you, as well?

Peter
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Reply By: Robin Miller - Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 13:50

Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 13:50
Thats good info Boobook, and a small breakthru.
So if your phone is switched on every second day only then it costs $22.50 in fixed charges per month.

I went thru the whole investigation thing for remote area comms myself using some helpful recent posts.
But with a total budget limit of about $1000 dollars I could see no real way for phones, and based on having a potentially intermittant service ended up with a complete (2nd hand) HF radio solution instead which means I am finally on amateur radio HF as well as now being VKS737 mobile 1786
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Follow Up By: Member - Boobook - Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 14:44

Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 14:44
Robin Miller replied:
....
So if your phone is switched on every second day only then it costs $22.50 in fixed charges per month....

Not quite Robin. You could have it activated and never turn it on and still pay $30 per month.

Activation and deactivation involves a call to TR telecom during business hours and a 30 minute delay.
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Follow Up By: Robin Miller - Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 15:31

Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 15:31
Hopefully the TR telecom call would be free so theoretically it could be done , but I imagine one wouldn't do it so often in practise.

Still great for turning it on/off over the few weeks of a trip BooBook.
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Follow Up By: Motherhen - Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 15:38

Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 15:38
Hi Robin

I cancelled my $30 plan ($10 calls per month included) with Telstra and will go to TR Telecom next time we go away. I will not take the $15 per month option to keep the number as Boobook has done, but will cancel after the four months which is their minimum before you can cancel. It just means a new number each time, but when we travel only occasionally and only the immediate family will have my number, it doesn't bother me at all.

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Follow Up By: Pete Jackman (SA) - Friday, Apr 30, 2010 at 11:35

Friday, Apr 30, 2010 at 11:35
Hi Robin,

I did the same sums before our Cooper trip last year and ended up with a 2nd hand codan, autotune and Jenal mike for under $800 and have full HF and Telcall capability. It has not let us down yet.

Cheers

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Reply By: blue one - Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 16:53

Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 16:53
Boo,

HF radio is great. If someone needs you they can leave a message (VKS737) or you can telephone them from anywhere in Aus on the set. (Public can listen)

The NGT set is the best money I have spent for comms and it has never let me down.

Cheers
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Reply By: Muddie - Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 17:50

Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 at 17:50
This sounds ok if your retired and out there most of the time, I only get away once or twice a year so the Telstra internationally enabled SIM in the phone is still a better and cheeper way to go, plus the company picks up my mobile cost anyway.
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Reply By: Member - bungarra (WA) - Friday, Apr 30, 2010 at 21:37

Friday, Apr 30, 2010 at 21:37
Great info Boobook

Can you or others confirm that calls / sms from other carriers .........Optus and Vodaphone.......come through using this TR mob?

Thanks
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Follow Up By: Member - Boobook - Saturday, May 01, 2010 at 06:43

Saturday, May 01, 2010 at 06:43
Bungarra, my SIM is in the mail. I will try it next week. They said it will work. I can't see why not as this is a fully supported service, unlike using Telstra SIM's which appears to be more like a quirk in the billing system left over from the countrywide days.

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