It is cheaper to use a satellite phone than..

towel401

use meteor's GPRS internet.

GPRS costs €5.92 per MB unless you get a bundle. I can't get bundles or fancy add ons because i use pay as you go like most other people. the calling rates are actually more expensive on the cheapest bill plans. O2 and vodafone are worse still

Data via satellite costs $5/mb on Thuraya. Inmarsat data costs around $7/mb . These are dollars. dollars are almost worthless these days

Until a few years ago there was no full internet on pay as you go - only the ****ty WAP and connections to mail servers and that were blocked. now I can at least get emails directly from my server using the phone's built in email client & use SSH but why is it such a ****ing rip off?

Random

Everyone here agrees with you. Go with 3s prepay data bundles which are hit and miss, or use Vodafones live.vodafone.com APN @ 99c for 50MB usage per day.

GekkePrutser

ciaranfo wrote:

Vodafones live.vodafone.com APN @ 99c for 50MB usage per day.

You can't use that for SSH and POP3 email though, just to make sure the original poster knows this (Because he was mentioning he uses these services). But for what you can do with it it's very useful.

By the way I agree too.. Even the vodafone 99c deal is pretty expensive if you consider that it costs me 30 euro per month to check my email throughout the day (through Exchange/HTTPS).

But I suppose we just have to wait for the market to mature. Once HSDPA becomes commonplace in handsets and the handsets start offering cool applications for it, the networks will have to lower the prices to offer the latest gadgets without their customers going bankrupt on data charges.

what_car

towel401 wrote:

use meteor's GPRS internet.

GPRS costs €5.92 per MB unless you get a bundle. I can't get bundles or fancy add ons because i use pay as you go like most other people. the calling rates are actually more expensive on the cheapest bill plans. O2 and vodafone are worse still

Data via satellite costs $5/mb on Thuraya. Inmarsat data costs around $7/mb . These are dollars. dollars are almost worthless these days

Until a few years ago there was no full internet on pay as you go - only the ****ty WAP and connections to mail servers and that were blocked. now I can at least get emails directly from my server using the phone's built in email client & use SSH but why is it such a ****ing rip off?

for example globalstar satellite service, see below.. is cheaper...
" from globalstar website"
Introducing the perfect plan for our Home Zone, talk as much as you want, nights, weekends, weekdays – anytime! Talk Unlimited on your Satellite phone for only €34.99 Euro per month! All calls from and to our home zone. This also includes data services, surf the web or sent emails unlimited!

not a bad deal!

towel401

what_car wrote:

for example globalstar satellite service, see below.. is cheaper...
" from globalstar website"
Introducing the perfect plan for our Home Zone, talk as much as you want, nights, weekends, weekdays – anytime! Talk Unlimited on your Satellite phone for only €34.99 Euro per month! All calls from and to our home zone. This also includes data services, surf the web or sent emails unlimited!

not a bad deal!

not bad at all, but they are having some trouble with their satellites. some of them are going bad and if a bad one is flying over it might not let you connect. but they are launching a whole new network in 2008 or 2009 so it will be good then. they are launching a few spares for the network they have now but that won't change much. if i was into the whole bill phone thing i'd still get one. once the new network is up your phone will probably be worth more than it is now. you can get GSP-1700's now for about $650 because everybody knows their network is **** for now