Iridium Satellite Phone ?

[hd_SDI_1080i]

I'm going on location in the Galapagos Islands shooting a documentary (using cine Alta HDCAM) next month and after some careful research I decided on Iridium to stay in touch with home. I looked the nearest competitor, Globalstar but they simply do not have the reach of Iridium. I also liked Iridium's prepaid plans and I think the 9505A is the newest sat phone around.

Any experiences here with Iridium technology? Dos and don'ts ? I purchased the data cable with the 9505A – not expecting a T1 connection however I'm hoping to send a receive POP mail.

Thanks

 

[PILMAN]

Never heard of Iridium but satellite phones cost a lot! The phones prices them self are one thing to scare me away but then the charge per minute is even scarier. I considered satellite phone in the past. Might be good if your plane crashes and you get stranded on an island right? Or would you be out of luck? lol

 

[mini1]

how much do they cost? I would like to learn about them. Satellite phones are that thing that you see in the movies that was so cool, but no one has one or knows about them.

 

[cdru]

how much do they cost? I would like to learn about them. Satellite phones are that thing that you see in the movies that was so cool, but no one has one or knows about them.

According to this page, a 55 minute calling plan runs $100 a month...so a little less then $2 a minute. Of courese if you get a plan with higher minutes you pay less per minute. Prepaid cards are $200/75 minutes/1 month or $800/500 minutes/12 months. Calls to outside their network, whatever that is, are $8 per minute. You thought that $.25 per extra minute on your cell plan was salty. Ouch.

 

[hd_SDI_1080i]

I purchased 500 mins @ $550 - service in any part of the world - plus free SMS messages. Irony is that this is cheapter than some Sprint roaming plans in Canada which equal about $3 per minute

 

[PILMAN]

Hence the reason when I travel I use my GSM phone motorolla v600 with QUAD bands. I just get a prepaid sim card there and thats it really. I don't really see the need for satellite phone besides the fact it will work practically anywhere. The phones are not gonna be anything fancy like you think. They look similar to the older little bit larger nokias. None are in color yet (that I know of) and we're talking 800 dollars minimum for those phones. Is the investment worth it? Depends where you are and your purpose.

 

[CDH]

Hence the reason when I travel I use my GSM phone motorolla v600 with QUAD bands. I just get a prepaid sim card there and thats it really. I don't really see the need for satellite phone besides the fact it will work practically anywhere. The phones are not gonna be anything fancy like you think. They look similar to the older little bit larger nokias. None are in color yet (that I know of) and we're talking 800 dollars minimum for those phones. Is the investment worth it? Depends where you are and your purpose.

I don't think you'll find any cellular phone (quad-band or otherwise!) will have access in the Galapagos Islands. They're hundreds of miles off the coast of South America in the Pacific Ocean.

http://maps.msn.com/(mkr3rmfxyc2yp4vn2a53dx55)/map.aspx?L=WLD&C=-0.35740%2c-90.47012&A=938.83333&P=|1DB8|&TI=Galapagos+Islands+(island(s))%2c+Pacific+Ocean

CDH.