Csail
N/A
Why are they so expensive to run? or are we just lucky we don't have to pay for gps nav kit.
Sat phones
- Thread starter Csail
- Start date
ukmctc
Well-Known Member
gings man, unless your sailing across the pond or around the world you don't need one.
And if you are doing the above, then you'll have the money for one.
Jeannius
Well-Known Member
They aren't... $1 a minute or thereabouts. When you think what the mobile phone crooks used to charge before they were forced to lower prices in the EU then being able to use Iridium anywhere in the world for $1 a minute is a bit of a bargain. Texts from Iridium are FREE!
Ex-SolentBoy
Well-Known Member
And the phone costs how much?
mjcoon
Well-Known Member
The comparison with GPS is rather valid for the cost of putting up satellites and maintaining them. I don't suppose Iridium satellites need atomic clocks like GPS ones, but keeping all those two-way channels going at the same time must be quite a technical challenge. (Wikipedia: Iridium_satellite_constellation) Like a cellular network with the cells moving faster than the clients! Or an Ethernet with a ridiculously long cable...
And unlike a GPSr the client devices have to be able to chat back to the satellite; don't all talk at once, down there!
Mike.
macd
Well-Known Member
Dunno, but my iSatphone (Inmarsat) cost £375, new.
Koeketiene
Well-Known Member
My Motorola 9505a (with all the kit) was £200 used
Conachair
Guest
Texts "to" iridium are free. Which is still very useful. I found the line rental was the killer. At the time it came out to nearly 400 quid a year.
Skylark
Well-Known Member
Because we live in a commercial world. Simples.
Jeannius
Well-Known Member
Mine was just over 200 GBP on ebay 8 years ago. Plenty available now for a few hundred. Mine still works well although a new battery wouldn't go amiss.
Jeannius
Well-Known Member
Sorry.... To is correct.
I don't pay any line rental, I just buy pay as you go top-ups in 500 minute units usually for around $550 from U.S. companies on ebay.
Conachair
Guest
Good price, lots less than I was paying. The line rental was hidden in the call costs on the sim card i had, if you had, say 500 mins for 3 months then to keep the credit for longer it was something like £35 a month to keep the sim card live without buying more time/minutes. Didn't make any sense when the phone only got used on offshore legs.
Jeannius
Well-Known Member
Ouch! I think the 500 mins are valid for 12 months but if you top-up again within that 12 months, any remaining minutes on the first card get extended by a further 12 months. I've got a couple of hundred minutes on mine that don't expire until 2013!
markjc
New Member
Actually the cost that you pay for your sat phone is representative of the cost of these satellites. The only reason that we even have access to GPS satellites is thanks to the world of aviation. Many moons ago an Airliner was shot down because it was in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is before GPS was public. The US Government at the time were made aware that their GPS technology could have prevented this, and the loss of all those lives. The decided at that point to allow the public to access the satellites for position fixing to prevent this ever happening again. They were also super nice and set it up such a way that you don't pay for the data. Although it (the signal) is transmitted all the time so the "cost" is built in to the receiver that you buy off the shelf.
History lesson over!
Siosarnoir
Active Member
Sat Phones
I have a thuraya sat phone it cost about £400 five years ago. It is pay as you go and you have to pay 39 dollars per year to keep it going. It works through western europe and out to the Azores. Text messages are about 30 cents voice calls about 1 dollar / minute. The coverage is shown on a map on their website. I have found it very useful.
I have a thuraya sat phone it cost about £400 five years ago. It is pay as you go and you have to pay 39 dollars per year to keep it going. It works through western europe and out to the Azores. Text messages are about 30 cents voice calls about 1 dollar / minute. The coverage is shown on a map on their website. I have found it very useful.
