Iridium Satellite Phone Text Messages

[Guest]

I have found that text messages sent when the phone is switched on arrive without problems.However when it is off they are not all coming through.Does anyone have any experience of this? Will I need to leave it on all the time to be sure of getting all my text messages?Ideally I would like to switch it on for a set period once every 24 hours to clear the mailbox.I am going foreign shortly and have elderly parents so I may need to be contacted urgently.Any thoughts suggestions welcome.

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[tony_brighton]

Doesn't sound like Iridium are operating 'store& forward' mail - you should give them a quick shout.

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[colvic]

Where are you going Foreign? as there could well be more reliable and definately cheaper options


Phil

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[Guest]

Initially northern France then the canals to the western Med.I can receive 120 character text messages free of charge.Provide the sender goes via the web then that is free to them as well.As I say if the handset is switched on it works perfectly - the problems arise when it is switched off.I have been in contact with Iridium via my service provider help desk and they say that text messages sent when the handset is switched off are stored for a maximum of 48 hours and should show up when I power the handset up and log on within that period.They say the problems are down to signal strength but the help desk guy was a bit dubious about this and said that signal strength tends to be blamed for all sorts of things and he had his doubts whether or not the messages are getting lost.So what I was looking for is someone who might have field experience of these matters and who could advise as to whether I need to have phone powered up all the time or whether leaving it on for a few hours every night or something might do the trick.

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[colvic]

We did the same trip four years ago and used what was then Cellnet on a contract. Expensive. Now on a local simm card in Spain, Movistar, and that works out very well and you receive text messages free of course. When you power up the phone messages sent while you were switched off then arrive. A card costs about €30 and comes with upto €25 of calls.

In France you can buy an Orange Fr card for €20 and you get 10 mins of calls with this one. You can call anywhere in Europe for a quite reasonable price and there is no charge for receiving calls or text messages.

A firm called Smart Call do pre pay calling packages to the UK from most Euro coutries and you can call the UK from Spain for 15p a minute or as little as 4p a min from a call box or house phone. They also operate in France but I don't know the costs from there but I would expect them to be LOWER as Spain seems to be an expensive place to call from, no doubt because it is so popular.

Phil

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