what satellite phone?

what_car

howdy
am thinking of signing up to globalstar as they have a new unlimited plan for 34.99 per month,,,unlimited calls...

does anyone have a globalstar sat phone? i like globalstar as someone calling you from a land line only pays the same as calling a french land line number..
and they have nice small phones... does anyone have experience of using this service?


i have looked at iridium also but someone calling an iridium sat phone from a land line has to pay 6-7 euros per min! does anyone have experience of using iridium?


all info appreciated...

one final point,, see below....is this the reason why they launched the unlimited plan?

extract from internet
Recent problems
According to documents filed with the SEC on January 30, 2007, Globalstar's previously identified problems with its S-band amplifiers used on its satelites for two-way communications are occurring at a rate faster than previously believed, possibly eventually leading to total loss of service in 2008.

In the filing, Globalstar made the following statements:

"Based on data recently collected from satellite operations, the Company has concluded that the degradation of the amplifiers is now occurring at a rate that is faster than previously experienced and faster than the Company had previously anticipated."

"Based on its most recent analysis, the Company now believes that, if the degradation of the S-band antenna amplifiers continues at the current rate or further accelerates, and if the Company is unsuccessful in developing additional technical solutions, the quality of two-way communications services will decline, and by some time in 2008 substantially all of the Company’s currently in-orbit satellites will cease to be able to support two-way communications services." [2]

Industry analysts speculate the problem is caused by radiation exposure the satellites receive when they pass through the South Atlantic Anomaly in their 800 km altitude orbits.[1]



whats the best to go for?

bkehoe

Have a look at Thuraya. Their handsets look the best out of all the satellite ones, and they're not that expensive - not much more than 1 euro a minute. You can even use your Vodafone/O2 sim card in their handset and roam onto satellite with your existing number. God knows the rates though - I did a test call with an O2 SIM roaming on Thuraya 2 months ago and it still hasn't appeared on my O2 bill, and O2 denied that they even had a roaming agreement with Thuraya when I asked for the rates!!

Alternatively, you can get a prepaid sim directly from Thuraya, and they have some clever ways to top up remotely - dial a freephone number and if pre-set up, you can then top up by X amount from your credit card, etc. They even support GPRS over the satellite network too. When using a Thuraya SIM, text messages seem a bit dodgy, though work perfectly with an O2 sim. However, if you've got your Thuraya sim in the phone, anyone can send you messages for free through a web gateway!

http://www.thuraya.com/content/thuraya-coverage.html for their coverage, though they'll have a new satellite covering Asia and Australia later this year I beleive.

I got my handset and sim from www.satphone.co.uk who also deal with every other satellite operator out there.