Just started looking into this, what can you tell me?

What do you want to know?

They’re insanely expensive to operate, or at least they used to be.

I used Iridium satphones in a previous position at work and remember having to test them monthly and having to stand outside in the open for them to work.

I use Iridium phones for my work.

Like was stated previously, you need to be out in the open for them to work and in line of sight of a satellite. Depending on where you are, the transmission/reception can be spotty. In the places I've used it, a call dropping after a bit was not unusual. The clarity is okay. But, when you need to communicate and there are no other options...

All of the sat phones we have have an emergency button that will call and/or text an entity that you can load into you phone prior to whatever trip you take. It should also transmit your coordinates.

I don't pay the bills for them, so I couldn't give you any information on that.

Anything else specific?

Same. Used them in the .mil while in some sketchy places but they were Iridium phones. I think that company has gone bust. Reading the previous post, I guess Iridium is still in business. Maybe they went bankrupt at one time?

There must be something now because my current airplane has a Satphone button on the audio panel and it works like a champ, even when airborne. No idea what they pay for that capability but it must be a pretty penny.

quote:

Originally posted by furlough:
Same. Used them in the .mil while in some sketchy places but they were Iridium phones. I think that company has gone bust.

They're still in business. We still use them today.

I don’t know what you are looking to do, and it’s not a phone per se, but I use a Garmin inreach while fishing offshore for emergencies, or to make sure dinner is ready when I tie up at the dock. It uses a Bluetooth connection to your phone to send texts via Satelite. It also needs a clear view of the sky, and it’s not fast, but it is pretty reliable.

I used Iridium satphones (had 3) at previous job. I tested them monthly.
I believe we paid $50.00/month and 10 cents a minute.
I don't know how much they cost for purchase.

PC

I've rented sat phones (always Iridium) when vacationing in some 3rd world spots - just because. It's not cheap, but less expensive than owning one and paying for a subscription (which I also looked into at one point). I doubt ownership has gotten any less expensive.

Depending on your needs, might a satellite messenger accomplish the task? It's like a PRB, only with messaging capability (some have basic GPS functions as well).

-Rob

Some of this reminds me of 20+ years ago and my first GPS's.... you had to tell them the time and your location before it could find any satellites.

A other fan of the Garmin InReach. We’ve used them from the North slope of Alaska to the Namibian desert with success. They only cost a few hundred bucks and the subscription plan can be purchased monthly.

I used to work for Qualcomm, whose principal business is designing and producing chips for mobile phones. But when I was working for Qualcomm we also developed (under contract) the Globalstar satellite phone system (a competitor to Iridium). We designed the earth-bound infrastructure, the phones, and chips for the satellites.

I was a bit surprised to find that Globalstar is still offering its services. I have no idea about cost of phones and service, but here’s a Globalstar link:
https://www.globalstar.com/en-us/

I've been researching the Garmin InReach as well for some of the places I hike.

I’m not going to pretend to know a lot about them. We had a couple of sat phones on my ranger district on the Bridger-Teton. We don’t have good radio coverage for the Teton Wilderness and we were running two trail crews to cover the nearly 600,000 acres of back country. Maybe things have changed, but when I had a crew in a part of the Wilderness with spotty radio coverage, we set a check-in time; the phone can’t be on all the time because the battery won’t last. We transitioned to Spot Satellite Comm Devices. Simply better for what we needed.

The Garmin InReach products may be what you are looking for.

When my boss spec’d out the new boat he installed a Globalstar. To be blunt, it sucked. It was basically barely useable. In the Bahamas we’d be lucky to get a couple minutes of a conversation in.

After that we started using an Iridium. You did have to go outside the boat to use it, but his wife could talk for 20 or 30 minutes on it no problem. I would just use it to call my wife and tell her where we were and where we were headed. (She has all the routes from my plotter in a notebook).

I put an external antenna on the top of the boat after I showed the boss it worked much better.

Then my boss decided to not pay the yearly charge so we were without.

I bought a Spot Tracker, generation 1. That way the wife can track me real time. She’s followed me all over the Bahamas. It does not have text ability like the new ones. I hide it in my travel trailer when we are traveling.

But I prefer a Sat phone so I can communicate. I will not cross the Gulf again without one(long story)if I have to rent one myself.

Are they different from satellite phones?

quote:

Originally posted by PCWyoming:
I used Iridium satphones (had 3) at previous job. I tested them monthly.
I believe we paid $50.00/month and 10 cents a minute.
I don't know how much they cost for purchase.

PC

At the time when I was using them as part of my job duties, I was told it was a dollar a minute.

That was like 2011–2012.

In 2005 some friends and I (2 vehicles) drove across Labrador from Goose Bay to Labrador City. It's a 350 mile journey and there is only one town along the way, about midway. Motor traffic was very slight, so possible assistance for a breakdown was unlikely. The government would loan a driver a satellite phone (with a deposit) to use if assistance was required. The phone was turned in at the other end and the deposit returned (with payment of a fee if the phone had been used). We made the journey without incident and did not have to use the phone, but I thought it was a nice idea.

flashguy