Inmarsat Mini-M - End of Service

[E1_1966]

Hi All,

just a quick note for those gearing up for extended cruising, or already is on extended cruise, and uses an Inmarsat Mini-M.

The service officially switches off on December 31st 2012!!
So make sure you get a replacement before then, or are still deciding whether to buy the 'Bargain' on ebay!

Mini-M Big Dish - December 31, 2012
Nera WorldPhone Portable December 31, 2012
Nera WorldPhone Maritime December 31, 2012
Nera WorldPhone Voyager December 31, 2012
Nera WorldPhone Provident December 31, 2012
T&T Mini M Portable December 31, 2012

Mini-M Regular Dish Land Portable - probably December 31, 2014
M - December 31, 2014

B Maritime - December 31, 2014 (If this affects anyone, can I crew on your megayacht?? ;-) )



Cheers
E1

 

[MailASail]

This is at odds with the information from Inmarsat?

Large Antenna mini-M - Dec 2012
GAN / Land mini-M - Sep 2014
D+ / B / M - Dec 2014
Maritime Mini-M - Dec 2016

Remember "M" is the old suitcase sized systems and some laptop shaped land systems. Maritime Mini-M will continue to be supported for a few years yet.

However.... Inmarsat is certainly trying to encourage such users to upgrade by increasing prices on those services. If your usage is more than extremely occasional then it's worth looking at a newer device...

For example, Iridium is extremely keen to pickup Inmarsat business right now. The Iridium OpenPort has been renamed the Iridium Pilot and there are some deals on that including 1,000mins of free Crew Calling which bring it under £3,000.

All the best

 

[E1_1966]

Correction

You are quite right, that will teach me to read at early O'clock with a 2 month old!

The links I read were:

http://outfitterconnect.com/site/news_detail.aspx?cid=359
http://www.mssnews.com/archives/2010/04/entry_163.html
http://www.kddi.com/english/business/inmarsat/mini_m/index.html

However, speaking to Inmarsat directly thia afternoon cleared it all up. The manufacturing and service of mini-m ceases.
There has been no date decided or announced for end of service on mini-m, according to them.

Happy to supply full links about how upset commercial users areover Inmarsats rethink of the pricing.

the basic iridium architecture is OpenPort, the antenna is totally redesigned along with some changes to transceiver for Pilot unit.

I wont comment on your prices quoted.

Cheers

 

[MailASail]

I'm a little confused as to who you are?? Are you a business?

http://outfitterconnect.com/site/news_detail.aspx?cid=359
http://www.mssnews.com/archives/2010/04/entry_163.html
http://www.kddi.com/english/business/inmarsat/mini_m/index.html

Any chance you could post a few links to my website?

Any reason for posting a bunch of links to commercial sites? Confused on motives...? Those sites all appear to disagree with you and confirm my dates? Kinda looks like you are posting commercial links for the sake of posting commercial links..? (Why?)

Happy to supply full links about how upset commercial users areover Inmarsats rethink of the pricing.

?? Is there a section of society that is happy with a price rise? Prices have risen, your reply is about accidentally posting a scare story that service is coming to an end, why are you chucking in details about commercial users of a service on a leisure forum??

If you are a commercial dealer then you will know that we can't currently talk about the changes which will take place imminently? If you are a non commercial then I agree it's fine to bitch, but perhaps look deeper into the reasons for the rises if you want to understand where Inmarsat are going

Either way, expect another round of changes in the near future. (hopefully for the better)

the basic iridium architecture is OpenPort,

The "brand name" of the product you refer to is OpenPort.

(It's not the "basic Iridium architecture" though. 2.4kbit data is the "basic architecture")

the antenna is totally redesigned

It is the same antenna with a new rounded housing.

However, rather neat is they just gave it a 5 year warranty, *retrospectively* on all units ever sold! So if you bought one 3 years ago (with a 1 year warranty), they just retroactively gave you a 2 year warranty on your unit... For an electronic device which is designed to be fitted in a saltwater environment I think this is probably close to unheard of? I presume it hints that it's proved reliable in practice...

along with some changes to transceiver for Pilot unit.

The transceiver is identical??

I wont comment on your prices quoted.

Because...?!

This forum has some unusual rules in that I can't post offers or deals or tell you that I can supply units for [£2.5K/3K/3.5K] when I'm posting honestly as a commercial name. However, it's apparently fine to create as many logins as you wish and have an argument with yourself under various pseudonyms apparently posting as non commercial users... I'm probably missing your point - I'm posting this note as a clearly commercial user just trying to set the record straight that users don't need to beat a path to our door to purchase new equipment this year. Please don't hang me out for that. Likewise if I misunderstand and you are a commercial provider then you probably ought to make that clear? (and also attend some conferences?)

Cheers all.

 

[E1_1966]

mini-m NOT ending (for the 2nd time)

Dear mailasail,
my apologies, you appear to have got your knickers in a serious twist over this.

Who am I. Descartes couldnt work it out, so I wont try to.
I post here as a private user.
If you would like to know about my 14 years working exclusively with L-band maritime comms, vessel email systems and Sys Admin networking/pen testing, then feel free to PM me, my rates are very reasonable.

As I said, I was tired and misread the pages that I checked.

The links that were posted were the top results from a google search of "Mini-M end of service date". or it was until this thread actually comes in at #1.
So looks like I don't need to post any links to your website, which you do with your footer anyway. You have all the free advertising you could wish for now.

as for the rest, it isn't worth answering.
Think it best of a MOD can delete the whole thread, or lock it and kill it.

I posted incorrect information in the first place, so it should be removed to avoid users getting bad info from me

cheers
E1