Sat phone hire or buy - any experience / knowledge?

[pomp Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pomp]

Re: Sat phone hire or buy - any experience / knowledge?

Heres a link for some Sat phone rental info:
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=830f ... f6e8ebb871

cheers LFAR for the file share info :wink:

[prado4x4 Member Find all posts View Profile Close prado4x4]

Re: Sat phone hire or buy - any experience / knowledge?

Also:
Can anyone confirm if you get satelite coverage outside GSM networks when using the GSM/NextG sim in a sat phone? (useless if it doesn't)

Michael

Feel free to re-read the reply I put up a day or so ago.

Yes you can use either a GSM or NextG sim card, in a motorola (9505, or 9505a) sat phone.
The sim card must be a telstra card, it must have international roaming enabled, and it must be on a plan (not prepaid).

I have used my own GSM card in my 9505a phone on a number of occasions without any problems in locations well
outside any GSM or NextG coverage (goldfields area of WA, Kimberley, Central Australia, Rudall River, Gulf country, etc).

Now telstra won't tell you it works, (maybe they want to sell a sat phone plan <smile>) and of course won't provide any
tech support if you have issues, etc, but it does work.

John

[dirttracker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dirttracker]

Re: Sat phone hire or buy - any experience / knowledge?

Thanks again John for being patient with all of us. It is very confusing because of all the conflicting information available. You may be right that Telstra is looking to sell you a new plan! That is why I asked the question of someone who is actually doing it. From the horses mouth so to speak.

[photoprado Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close photoprado]

Re: Sat phone hire or buy - any experience / knowledge?

Yes, thanks John.

It isn't that I didn't read what you wrote. I was looking for confirmation from others who had also had it work for them, but no worries, there are various confirmations on the interweb that all agree with what you say.

This has to be the way to go unless you spend a lot of time outback.

Keeping a look out for a cheap Iridium phone, in the meantime I have managed to borrow one, and will get a Telstra 'Casual 10' sim with international roaming turned on for it.

Michael

[prado4x4 Member Find all posts View Profile Close prado4x4]

Re: Sat phone hire or buy - any experience / knowledge?

No problem guys,

Happy to help out.

John

[photoprado Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close photoprado]

Re: Sat phone hire or buy - any experience / knowledge?

And: It Works!

Telstra didn't like giving me the $10 casual SIM. It wasn't on any of their screens, they had to ring someone to confirm it was still available etc - their walk-in minimum seems to be a $20 Casual SIM which includes some calls. Anyway, they did eventually give it to me without any major problem. I put it in the satphone (Moto 9505) before enabling International roaming and turned it on with the predicted result: "Invalid Account" - I then rang Telstra and enabled International Roaming and bingo - it registers fine and allows calls.

Annual cost = $120 plus any calls. Telstra's minimum Sat plan TMS30 is $30 per month.

[TOPNDR Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close TOPNDR]

Re: Sat phone hire or buy - any experience / knowledge?

Have a look at this link to the Govt's Sat Phone subsidy scheme.

I'm not sure what the current subsidy is but when I purchased mine, it was $1500 back on a $2000 Iridium 9505a. We haven't used it much but the piece of mind it brings is priceless. I've never failed to make a call, unlike stories of the Globalstar network.

My SatPhone is a genuine Iridium with an international (non-Telstra) operator. The draw back with the non-Telstra version is that it won't call 000, 1300, 1800, 12 or 13 numbers, whereas the Telstra version will. I get around this by programming into the SatPhone's memory, the comms phone number for each State & Territory police force. Given recent press about the inability of 000 operators to think past a street name and number, I think I'm better off going straight to the coppers.

[FlyNdrive Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close FlyNdrive]

Re: Sat phone hire or buy - any experience / knowledge?

I just got a Motarola 9500 from a guy in Sydney (off eBay) and a sim card.

Earlier someone mentioned the sim card needs an adaptor. Is this true? I thought all the iridium phones took the same card.

-Ben

[photoprado Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close photoprado]

Re: Sat phone hire or buy - any experience / knowledge?

I just got a Motarola 9500 from a guy in Sydney (off eBay) and a sim card.

Earlier someone mentioned the sim card needs an adaptor. Is this true? I thought all the iridium phones took the same card.

-Ben

Standard sim works in mine. I think if you have one of those micro sims you might need an adapter.

You could bring a prepaid minutes sat sim from the US or get a basic Telstra plan here and pay through the nose for minutes. Kinda depends how much talking you are going to do...

Michael

[Muddles Member Find all posts View Profile Close Muddles]

Re: Sat phone hire or buy - any experience / knowledge?

Optus also run a combined GSM / Satphone through the Thuraya system

The handsets are good solid units having used the combo GSM/Sat unit a couple of times it works well on both networks call costs aren't to bad either.

http://personal.optus.com.au/web/ShowBi ... eNov08.pdf

[Whitey1 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Whitey1]

Re: Sat phone hire or buy - any experience / knowledge?

I just got back the other week from doing the CSR and we hired an Iridium sat phone from a local company called Mt Barker Communications in Albany.
Cost us $110 per week plus $1.80 per min for calls.He gave us a prepaid courier satchel so that we could send it back when we got to Kununurra and therefor only paying for the time we needed it. Worked everywhere we tried it although it took a bit of time to get a signal when we were under trees.
Haven't got the bill yet so not sure on the total cost.(we did use it a bit to check on things back home)

[hoppy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close hoppy]

Re: Sat phone hire or buy - any experience / knowledge?

We are going to hire a SPOT..
http://www.satcomhire.com.au/hire/spot- ... r-day.html

Just for the Birdville track really. If I was going further west I would probably hire a Sat phone ..

[404pug Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 404pug]

Just to update this thread....... 5 years later are Global Star any better than mentioned above? Reconditioned globalstar phones [Qualacom???] are available from about $350. I have heard that the network is better than 5 years ago. Any recent real world experience?

[groeschel Member Find all posts View Profile Close groeschel]

Just to update this thread....... 5 years later are Global Star any better than mentioned above? Reconditioned globalstar phones [Qualacom???] are available from about $350. I have heard that the network is better than 5 years ago. Any recent real world experience?

In regards of Globalstar I cant help you but in the context of the whole thread I can offer some own experience.

I bought a second hand Inmarsat phone on ebay and use a prepaid card for trips.
Sometimes you get phones in the range of around $200 and the prepaid card limits the ongoing cost to consumption only.
I found that convenient as I don't use it that often and don't like to pay for a service I don't use.

You might loose some $ if you overcharge the preaid account above what you need and you get beyond the validly period but that is IMO manageable.
I load only the minimum and have setup the recharge with the providers via a call or txt message.

The phone has reasonable quick login and had everywhere coverage where I tried to make a call or check for TXT messages.
That worked globally for me not only in AU.

Yes, I had to carry a second phone but this phones are purpose-build and quite robust, water sealed etc.


Hope that helps
Cheers
Michael

[Heath74 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Heath74]

Another vote for Inmarsat, have had mine for 2 years no problems