Article Comment: Handheld Satellite Phone Solutions for Travellers

Hi Duncan, yes it has been a while, far too long. Love your suggestion of 'selling to the kids', if we said to our kids we'd 'sell' them the Sat phone they would think we'd lost our minds, what's ours is theirs in this place, but a good idea none the less. We've taken your suggestion of repurchase on board and checking it out. Thanks for your reply.

Use Skype to call an IsatPhone.

About $2.70 a minute last time I looked.

Hi Greg, thanks for your reply, if you still have your $10 plan I'd lay very low and keep quiet if I was you, Telstra would love to know about it. Ours went from $10 - $20 - now $40 to $45 next year, my hubby's mobile phone is on that Mobile Accelerate Casual Plan that you mentioned, that started at $10 and has recently jumped to $35. I guess Telstra has to get some profit somehow.

If it jumps to $45 they will be not be making any profit as I will dump it :)

Cheers
Greg

Hi Zippo, My hubby has his mobile on that plan you're on, it started at $10 and is now $35, hopefully they've overlooked yours, not sure why they're bumping up our charges, my mobile has gone up as well from $30 to $40. Thanks for your reponse.

Dunworkin, IS it the same plan? There used to be more than one $10 plan with Telstra. I'd like to see one of your accounts to verify yours was/is the same.

Same here, I had that plan and now it's 40pm with a 10 credit for 12 months. Telstra told me all old plans will be upgraded this year to this extra small plan.

Zippo, our Satellite account has ' Telstra Mobile Satellite' whereas my Hubby's mobile phone has 'Mobile Accelerate Casual Plan' on it and it also started at $10pm and has now been upped to $35. I might point out that Hubby's phone could almost be donated to a museum.

Hi Mark C9, I will check that website out. Thanks for your reply.

Be aware that if you get an international plan such as an 8866 type number, people will be charged between $18 and $30 per minute to call you!!! Yep. That's per minute.

You can't leave a message and get people to call you back as they have to call 0011 8866 xxxxx

Wow, thanks Boobook, that certainly is a catch for young players...

Acronyms and abbreviations don't help those not familiar with them.

One can guess at WAPOL and a commcen, Some people may not be able to work it out.

What the heck is an SJA ?

Hi Dean K3, I would be interested to see how you go with the sim from your phone in the Sat phone. A very interesting comment you made about your conversation with St Johns call operator, and yes, I agree the WAPolice probably wouldn't be too impressed calling '000' because you ran out of fuel in the middle of the desert. Thanks for the reply.

Dean, it WILL work with any Telstra SIM on a post-paid account with international roaming enabled - chargeable at Iridium rates in/out.

Won't work with their various resellers on the Telstra Wholesale network i.e. Aldi/Belong/....
Boost is the only Telstra Retail reseller and I haven't been able to try them, nor have I heard any reports.

Deploying your Telstra SIM in an Iridium phone has two issues. One, it is a time-consuming fiddle to extract it from your cellphone. Secondly, the SIM SIZE - the Iridium 9505A/9555 use a mini-SIM, while most cellphones of the last 7 or 8 years use micro or nano. Having and using an adapter is a compounding fiddle, not to be underestimated in an emergency situation.

What Zippo says....

Also

1)Boost doesn't work. I tried it on a working SIM. Actually Boost is prepaid so that could be why.
2)The other disadvantage of using your normal day to day Telstra SIM is that when you put it in the Sat phone you may get lots of missed calls or messages ( if you have been out of coverage for say a week) and these cost $1.50 ea. Also, you will get normal calls with people not knowing you are paying $4 a minute to receive them. This would be a last resort IMHO.

Frank, I'm a bit surprised.

SJA = St John Ambulance. That's even the first listed entry at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SJA

Some just say "ambos", but those with a working interaction with them usually use the TLA.

Heh, heh, thanks Zippo. :-)

I should have known. In my past life I lived by TLAs...

AIP, VFG, SLF, AOI, ERS, RVR, VTC, RNC, WAC, RTC, SID, IAL, SMC, ADC, TMC, AFS..... the list was endless.
Even had a TLA for my occupation :-). And then there were the four and five letter ones as well.

Cheers

Zippo,

In both Vic. & NSW, St Johns Ambulance are a voluntary organisation similar to the SES. In Vic. we have Ambulance Victoria, & in NSW, I believe it is the Rural Ambulance Service. So acronyms in one state can be meaningless to someone who is not from that state. I had no idea what SJA was.

Macca.

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Apart from Frank's "WAPOL" and "commcen" none of the above are acronyms. They are initialisms.
To be an acronym it needs to be pronounceable as a word.
Here endeth the english lesson.
Signing off with a TFI (two-finger initialism) lol..... ("lol" is an initialism too)

Thanks Vince, will check them out.

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Mark,

It all depends on the value you place on a safety device. If you get a cheapie phone on a cheapie plan then you cannot expect it to 'be there' when you need it. Maybe OK for social use, but......
If you want it as a life-saving device you need to pay a buck or two with a top phone and a post-pay plan.
Mine is not "temperamental'.

And with a phone you DO know the signal "gets through" because someone says "hello". With a GPS you HOPE the signal is getting through while you wait a few days for the cavalry.

Thanks Allan B
Mine wasn’t cheapie. Top of the line iridium
My plan wasn’t cheap either. A mate who runs a hunting safari operation in the NT put me onto the plan. He couldn’t afford to miss a call from a potential customer
When I said temperamental, I was talking about the hit/miss times when I was in the scrub and it just didn’t work. Tree canopy cover stops the signal
They are very hit and miss in the bottom of a ravine when the walls prevent signal reaching the sat
They are very good in the dry season away from trees etc but storms kill them
Have you been lucky enough to be caught in the middle of a NT a river or even out to sea in the middle of a wet season storm?
on 2 occasions, I was talking to someone on the ph until a storm hit and then the signal dropped out
It’s the same as Sat tv. When a storm rolls in, the signal just cant penetrate the dense storm.
If it is a life and death situation, I’ll take an EPIRB any day. These days the signal will be received by the satellite in minutes and then AMSA is notified immediately.. $350 for a 10 year life

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Strange that "the signal just cant penetrate the dense storm." yet the EPIRB can do it reliably during a dense storm.
In point of fact, I have both systems.

I didn’t say the signal from an epirb can penetrate the big storms any better than a sat ph, but once activated the epirb CONTINUOUSLY sends a signal until you switch it off.
It will not drop out for a min of 24 hrs
The signal will penetrate any small gap in the storm, and once the signal gets thru, AMSA will set the wheels in motion in MINUTES.
I have 2 mates who fly the rescue choppers in NT and they told me the finer details of the system. Its much better these days with the new system
JUST MAKE SURE YOU GET THE GPS ENABLED EPIRB, NOT THE CHEAPER non gps VERSION
Unlike a sat ph, you have to wait til the storm passes.

Yes, an EPIRB will get them coming to you but they will have no idea of the nature of the emergency, other than it is life threatening. I suppose they will pack the kit required to cover most of the possibilities.

So say you need to discuss your emergency needs. An EPIRP or any other beacon won't help you with that.

Texting through inReach or Spot may work, but better still is a satphone.

We carry Spot (primarily for family tracking, but also good for SOS), A GPS enabled PLB and an Iridium satphone. We chose Iridium because, though not perfect, it is least susceptible to poor horizons and has consistent coverage on the Australian continent.

They can find us with either of the two location beacons we have, and we can talk through our situation if we can/if needs be.

I don't believe there is one single solution. IMO you need location (PLB/EPIRB/Spot) plus communication (satphone).

Cheers

Thanks, I've not heard of spot, I’ll look into it
I agree that there is no one single solution
Epirbs are only supposed to be used in an emergency but many ‘locals’ have used them to ‘bring Beer and fuel’
We have terrible coverage in aust
I have been fishing 20 kms off Darwin with the city buildings still in sight but no mobile phone service.
I can recall being in Africa and watched Masai warriors tending their cattle in the middle of nowhere – they were all on their mobile phones
They will drop a rescue package incl 2 way radio if they cant land

Hello

My last Iridium Sat Phone bill (May) with Telstra Sim - SMS = 0.25c each, Off Peak Phone call ~1.10c/min - don't know what price is when not "off peak"

Cheers
Greg

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Hi JR,

That "log-off" is not the case with my Iridium 9555 on a Telstra Satellite plan. It has been switched off for the past 8 months (alas) and I just now went out and turned it on. Took 20 seconds to auto-register and I dialled my mobile which rang within 5 seconds. As always. When away remotely, it affords me much comfort.
It is possible to test my PLB but messy so I just trust it will work if needed.

Maybe something different with your setup?

My satphone is not used often but it sits in a pouch near the passenger's head, constantly on, registered, and connected to the 12v and an external antenna. Always tested before leaving home. Never a problem.... wish all my communications were as reliable!

Agree with Allan.Mine hasn't been on the network for the best part of nine months, but I repeated the test that Allan did. Had to actually go outside to get it to register, then it was about ten secs before my mobile rang.

(Mine is - as mentioned earlier in this thread - on the "Mobile Accelerate Casual Plan $10".)

Thank you all, JR, we've had our Irridium for about 9yrs and have never had that problem, we've had it sitting in the cupboard for up to 2yrs at a time and it still works when we try it before leaving home. Thanks for the warning though.

Happened on a 9505 and now Extreme handsets
When reset, they just say "it happens sometimes", occurred to me 5 or 6 times over maybe 10 years
monthly cost kept rising and wasn't available when needed
Finally cancelled sat plan and using normal postpaid SIM it seems OK other than stuff around swapping SIM cards
And I recall it had to be reset during office hours too

Do a check before leaving mobile range if going to be reliant on it and carry PLB

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Weird!

Thanks JR, we usually do check it before we leave to go anywhere. Thanks for the heads up.