Iridium 9555 vs 9575 vs Inmarsat IsatPhone2

Boh999

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Hi!

Posted in Norwegian forum. Most replies were of the opinion that Iridium is better than Inmarsat (roughly). Some answers seemed based on old data however, i.e. that Inmarsat is no good.

Is this still the truth though? Things seem to have changed?

We are looking for purchase advice, need to decide in a few days. Will use it on Biscay, between Portugal and Madeira, possibly between Madeira and Tenerife, and on Atlantic Rally Cruise from Gran Canaria to S:t Lucia. Will not cruise near the poles.

Do we really need to buy Iridium, or will IsatPhone2 do? It is half the price and seem as rugged as the Iridium 9575. We need to call a few times and download GRIB-files daily. That must work.

Already analysed Iridium's phone. One would prefer 9575, but maybe go for 9555 due to cost. Also needed are these two gadgets:
1. https://www.globaltelesat.co.uk/redport-wxa-122-optimizer
2. http://www.sattransusa.com/irid-ant-aux.html

If IsatPhone2 is good enough for us, do we need any other stuff, like with Iridium? I.e. antenna and wifi router/firewall?

Cheers and thanks for a good forum!
 

Zing

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I have an old Inmarsat. Works fine until recently, but I need to replace it, so have been researching this. Inmarsat are the market leader by a big margin and every ship has its gear, so the talk about it not being as good is questionable. It doesn’t work near the poles and that’s a problem if you want to go there.

I may well not bother unless I go to the S. Pacific or some other really remote spot for months. Weather can be obtained by weatherfax and for emergencies there is the Epirb. Otherwise from what I can tell there is not a huge amount of difference between your options. It’s not on your list, but I quite like the Iridium Go. You can get an unlimited data for it at an OK price, which seems a nice idea. It is v. slow data though, but they all are slow on this list.
 

GregOddity

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We’ve also been looking because we intend to sail around the same route you’re going. I actually thought I would be able to gleam the best option in 10m, a couple of months later here I am. Still wondering which IS better and cheaper to run.
Inmarsat has a fleet of much older satellites then Iridium, and the satellites are on geostationary orbits around the equator, which means some problems in certain conditions for your device to actually find them and no high latitude coverage. Think an Island like the in the Azores may force you to keep moving for line of sight to the satellite.
Iridium satellites move all over the place kind of coming to you instead of you having to look for them. Having said that the system is not perfect neither and you may find yourself with an extended arm in the cockpit waiting for a bird to show up.
Inmarsat from my opinion seems more devoted to Commercial then any other activity. Iridium kind of tries to compete with that by offering better coverage.
But that’s as far as I got.
Iridium Go seems to have had some issues of hardware, ( there’s a couple of reports of them melting the charging port ) I understand it’s been addressed, but it’s an interesting option. Just make sure you do not download a movie mid Atlantic or your laptop decides to update to a new version of windows.
I’m tempted to go 9575.. but as you say.. cost = 9555
Sorry this is not of much help.
 
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duncan99210

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It all really depends on what you want to achieve. If you want voice communications then it's a toss up between Iridium and Inmarsat, each has its strengths and weaknesses: likely to come down to cost in the end, both of the kit and access costs.
However, if you're content with data only then the Iridium GO is a reasonable option: not too expensive to buy, easy to link to a tablet/laptop for data but remember its slow. Like really slow. But using it on a transat last year we were getting daily emails and forecasts no trouble except for it needed to sit outside.
Another alternative is Garmin InReach. That is cheaper to run, cheaper to buy and gives you two way text message ability plus with the right subscription it'll give you customised forecasts. We found that it was actually the go to communications device on our crossing. It also tracks your position on a webpage which you can let friends know about so they can see where you are in more or less real time. Oh, and it's links to a tablet, phone or laptop via Bluetooth, so easy to use.
 

miyagimoon

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We purchased the IsatPhone 2 along with the Red-Port Optimiser for our trip down the Red Sea, through the Gulf of Aden and across the Indian Ocean.

It worked fine in that we could get text messages, make phone calls, and by using it via the optimiser along with the software Remote Mail (you pay a subscription for the software) we could send & receive e-mails and download Grib Files.

However, the micro usb socket on the phone which is used for connecting to the optimiser and for charging always felt loose and sometimes difficult to get a connection. Just after we entered the Gulf of Aden the micro usb socket actually fell out of the phone. Meaning we could not connect to the optimiser and consequently could not send or received e-mails nor down load grib files. But worse still was that we could not charge the battery so eventually the battery died and hence we could not even send texts or make phone calls.
It is advertised as rough and rugged and good in any environment. Sorry it is not and the last thing we needed in Pirate Alley was our means of long range communication failing. We bought it in December 2017, did not use it for real until mid January 2018. It failed on 21st February 2018.
Some times it's worth paying a little bit extra.
 
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