Text based comms device for remote areas? Is there such a device

Thanks, I've got one of them. It can only send one or two predetermined texts and not receive any texts.

i thought that may be the case, HF is probally the next to Sat phone but it is a "size" issue, a "sat" phone is large because of the anttenea needs, there are some small sat phones now but no way as good as the bigger Iridium's .....
Dont know of anything else out there but others may..
Good luck, i will be interested to see if others come up with something, every day something new comes out ...

Looks like that lone gum tree in the Simpson is going to get a beating.

That looks like it could be what I want. It has all the features of Spot and much more!! I'll have to look into it a bit more and find out what plans are on offer.

Cheers
Alan

I'd be interested in what you can discover further with this device, especially if there is an Australia agent who knows what they are talking about :). One residential plans mentioned US$35 per month and around US12c per SMS.

Andrew

Not too sure about that Richard. Scott and Gaby (Canadian members) had an iridium phone that was non Telstra and you could email/txt them for free through the Iridium website. They could then return a text message to your email address. Close to SMS-ing I suppose.

Now with my globalstar, I could write a note, gaffer tape it to the phone and then staple the phone to a carrier pigeon. Still had a better than average chance of reaching it's destination than an attempt to make a standard phone call!

Cheers Mick

G'day Mick the Iridium SMS service is via email only and you can not sms to another phone.....even another iridium.

When you go through Telstra, Telstra allows you to SMS to another phone.

The way we found out about it was John and Suzette whilst away with you could not send SMS's to our phones as they had been able to before.....John changed from Telstra to TR...we contacted TR on behalf of John and got told about the email only.

It's good for us as we can send emails for free to and Iridium phone.

You think you've got it bad with globalstar....at least you have the carrier pigeon option, on the Optus Mobilesat system we have we can't send anything except voice, data or fax.....no messaging at all.

Hi guys,

We have an Iridium phone that uses Pivotel (aka Globalstar) as provider. It has an Australian mobile number and wec ans end sms to any mobile.

Cheers

Peter

Pivotel is an Iridium supplier.

Globalstar is totally different, uses its own useless satellite and has nothing to do with Iridium.

I could send and receive SMS messages from my 9505A but ONLY FROM TELSTRA phones
My son on Vodafone and my friend on OPTUS could NOT text me.
I think I could text them but is two years since I tried.

Graham,

For clarification. I didn't comment that Globalstar has anything to do with Iridium.

Pivotel now provide the Iridium satellite service in addition to the Globalstar dual-mode satellite and cellular services. It is an Australian company that took over the responsibility for Globalstar services in Australia from Vodafone.

Uisng the Pivotel Iridium service you can sms or call to or receive calls from any Australian mobile.

Peter

I know that but AKA means another name for.

EG Pivotel (aka Globalstar)

Pivotel are as you say a providor of both servises but are NOT Globalstar under another name.

I bet they dont sell may Globalstar phones ROFL

Cheers

Graham,

As I recall, Pivotel was formed when the Globalstar Australia operation split from being under the Vodafone operation. It is an Australian company but is the Globalstar agent for Australia and NZ. So "aka" is correct. They have been very smart though to also provide an Iridium service whic is far superior to Globalstar. This may change if Globalstar do manage to egt their new satellites up.

Peter

Graham,

As I recall, Pivotel was formed when the Globalstar Australia operation split from being under the Vodafone operation. It is an Australian company but is the Globalstar agent for Australia and NZ. So "aka" is correct. They have been very smart though to also provide an Iridium service which is far superior to Globalstar. This may change if Globalstar do manage to get their new satellites up.

Peter

Yes I was talking to them this morning further to the post I put up awhile ago.

They use the Thuraya satellite which is in a high orbit above Singapore. 36,00km he said???
I asked about the height because of the low angle of the TV sat which is a bit hard to lock onto in the south and south west.

The charges for Sat only are $20 a month plus calls which I think are under $2 a minute.
You can disconnect it BUT IT COSTS $30 to reconnect it each time you do it.

He said that specifically as i mentioned the I telecom???? which you can turn on and off sort of on a daily basis.

One of their phones uses the GSM network which is fine if its where you are.

I was in Geraldton last year and swiched my Iphone onto GSM to save the battery and missed several calls due to only being NEXT G in that area apparently.

So their you have it straight from the Companies mouth so to speak.

Hope that helps

"road testing" Thuraya in and around Nyirripi and further around the Tanimi the "Thuraya" performed poorly against the Iridium, signal was the downfall .....

Thanks for that Joe Grace Doomadgee. At under $700 and on a pre paid basis it sounded like a good back up system, considering it would have cost me $360 to hire a sat phone for 3 weeks.

Cheers

Stephen

You should have bought mine. I bought it 3 years ago and sold it for the same price last week.

Get one on Ebay.

Total costs for the time I had it was 1 call $3.77.

I suspect there are possibilities there Stephen, to lower the cost of sms remotely.

I realize the signal issues , but I suspect some form of better/temporay antenna process may be part of the solution as sms doesn't require you to speak directly into the phone and it gets through better than voice in part because of the short data burst.

HF is coming along to - I note we are edging towards full two way SMS.