Satellite Phones , Plans, Telstra Sim Cards etc

Hi Terrafima, if you have aTelstra SIM that is enabled for Global Roaming, it should work in an Iridium 9505a Sat phone, this is what I have and it works fine. Your phone number will be the same as your cell for incoming callers. When using the phone to make a call you will need to enter the STD code as well as the number you want, even if you are in the same State as the the Number you want. IE (08) for WA and SA (03) for Victoria etc. You will be billed for incoming and outgoing calls using this method, about $4 per minute. This has worked for me in two 9505a Iridium phones that I have had over the years and the billing has never been OTT ( we are infrequent users whilst remote). Hope this helps. Kanga.

Excuse me for being a little pedantic TerraFirma but there is no plural for the Kimberley.

As for the Satphone, the Motorola 9505A will access the small sim card when loaded into the standard sim card sized holder, but I have the understanding that the iPhone 4s has an even smaller sim card again.

If I am mistaken, I'm sure I will be repremanded most severely.

hi terrafirma, will probably see you in the Kimberleys. i have a stat phone through TR Telecom (they have a web site) they have a good casual rate no fees for turning on/off if needed, worth the look. ah quincy

While you can use your existing Telstra postpaid, international roaming SIM in an iridium satellite ( micro sim issue aside). I would recommend that you get a seperate number from Telstra. They have a suitable plan for $10 per month that has no minimum contract. Doing it this way has a couple of advantages.

1)You are not changing sims between coverage and non coverage areas between phones.
2)If you use your exiting number you will find that everyone calls you for a chat not knowing you are paying $4.00 per minute. In the end you answer no calls because of the cost. A seperate number only given to people you want to call you on the Sat phone solves this.

TerrFirma,

what exactly do you intend to do in the Kimberley?

How long will you be there?

You may find that a satphone is not necessary. The place is crawling with people and if you are only going to be out of regular mobile coverage for a little while perhaps an epirb would be better.

I haven't used my satphone for ages. I think it would be hard to find a place in the country now that is sufficiently remote or uninhabited to justify one. Unless you have regular contact commitments, of course.

We have the Motorola 9505a and are a Telstra Business customer BUT I recomend you dont put your normal SIM in there simply because you will never get a break and cannot filter the unecessary calls that need not have been made to your "normal number"....lets face it you are on holidays and dont need to pay the in/out costs and call back costs ...or spend the time for that matter on / for calls that were simply not totally necessary.

What we did was to purchase a Telstra SIM on a casual plan for $10 / month and we keep that always in the Sat phone. NO one has that number apart from the "need to know" people

Our normal SIM stays in the normal phone and when we go away we put a mess in there stating we are "out of mobile range, please leave a mess and we may pick it up in a day or week or so whatever, if it is urgent please call xxxxx(someone who has your sat number)

In that way your contact person can make a decision to either pass the sat phone number on to them or take a mess and contact you themselves.......we turn ours on daily between a pre determined time of usually 1 hour..then shut off from the outside world till next time.

when your back in range just check your normal phone...no unnecessary calls and no messing around with changing SIM's..

By the way hang onto the C5220 they are very very good for a signal with a dedicated patch lead and a broomestick aerial.......

cheers

There are now Federal Government subsidies for satellite phones available for people who (a) live outside mobile range (85% subsidy) and (b) 'Travellers' (50% subsidy) To qualify for the latter you need to 'design an itinerary' that will take you out of mobile range for at least 180 days over the next two years.

This is not a complicated task - especially as 15 minutes 'out of range' in any one day counts as one whole day and most of inland Australia outside the town boundaries are short on mobile coverage.

The best phone to get is the Imarsat Pro. This is the only phone with no monthly charges - just prepaid credit which last for two years. Call costs to a fixed line are $1.00 pm, to mobiles phones $1.20 pm SMS/Txt $0.50 and email free - the later go through their website I believe - have not tried it yet.

With the full subsidy of 85% the Imarsat Pro phone will cost you just $123.75 plus your pre paid credit. There is no cheaper forms of insurance for people who live or travel outside mobile reception.

One thing to be aware of is that these phones are international - so they will not recognise Australian abreviated dialing codes for emergencies - .eg. 000 or 112.

You just need to program in the police and other emergency services into the inbuilt 'phone book' in the phone.

I bought mine through Toxic Tech who despite the name were great to deal with. All the forms are on their website www.toxictech.com.au. Download them, fill them in and post the back to Toxic Tech who will check them for completions and then forward them to the Feds.

The latter were suprisingly on the ball and the application was completed withing two week of sending the forms in. The Government will post the approval back to you. You send it to the supplier, order and pay for the phone.

This is for information only I have no interests, commerial or otherwise with Toxic Tech


Regards John