Global-star Sat Phone with Next G Sim will it work?

Peter, a Global star won't even work with it's own sim card. Go to their web site. it is kapoot.

Maybe you are talking about iridium, that will work with a post paid SIM that is enabled with international roaming.

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Gday Peter,
I have an Iridium phone and I was paying $35 per month for the service , calls were $2 per minute in and out.
I tried putting my Telstra Next G sim in it and found that by simply dialling my mobile no it went to the sat phone, also I could call any phone from the satphone as if I was dialling from my telstra mobile, no dialling international numbers.
The charges appear on my telstra bill as sat phone service and cost $2 per minute, I can send SMS from the satphone but SMS to it does not seem to work, so I have the same $2 per min call cost but no $35 monthly fee.
When I get out of 3G range I, just put the sim in the Iridium phone and bingo,back in business.
It takes a few minutes to log on when I first put in the sim and the same when I put it back into my mobile but otherwise it all works just fine.
Hope thats a help, I don't know anything about Glabalstar.

Hi Boobook,
I just checked my Telstra bill and you are correct, it is $2 per 30 secs.
I was previously paying $37.50 pm and the calls were $2per min, or $450 per year if I never used it.
It's only for emergencies so now it costs me nothing if I don't use it and $4 per min if I do, if I break down and really need to call someone it is cheap.
I found that I can send SMS to any mobile but have not had any luck sending SMS to the satphone,( from Crazy John phone), it arrived after I put the sim back in my mobile but that may be just telstra, sometimes I get SMS days after they were sent.
SMS cost $1.25.

Boobook, made a call yesterday on my G Star Sat phone. The problem I have is G Stars charging for casual use and $100 to fire up the phone and $35 a month.eg for 2 or 3 months only. compare to buying another sat phone for $750 and a $50 phone credit that can last 2 years.

I understand the $100 fire up charge comes in when more Sat are available after Dec 2011, giving better coverage.

Peter

There is a break-even point of having a dedicated SIM against using your Global Roaming account. When I last did the figures I needed to clock up over 120 minutes a year on 50 calls or so to make it nearly viable to have a Satellite phone account and SIM.