Thread: Satellite Phones

I have just bought an Iridium 9505a second hand off ebay. I can put my post paid international roaming enabled Telstra NextG sim card out of my mobile into the sat phone & make sat calls. I'm not going to mount it in my D4 as it is only for use infrequently.

Originally Posted by Milton477

I have just bought an Iridium 9505a second hand off ebay. I can put my post paid international roaming enabled Telstra NextG sim card out of my mobile into the sat phone & make sat calls. I'm not going to mount it in my D4 as it is only for use infrequently.

What are call costs when using the Telstra NextG SIM? Do you still need a Satellite Phone plan?

Originally Posted by laughto

What are call costs when using the Telstra NextG SIM? Do you still need a Satellite Phone plan?

Umm, think I have found the answer to my question. Looks like you can use the cheapest possible post-paid Telstra NextG casual plan - current cheapest advertised casual plan is $35/mth. There is a suggestion that cheaper plans may be available as a walk-in to a Telstra shop and asking, or insisting on a cheaper (possibly $10/mth) plan, although some of this info dates back to 2014. May be worth a try however. Best not to mention that it is for a Sat Phone, as they will want to sell you a Satellite Plan and lock you in for a minimum period at great expense. This all of course assumes you are not swapping in your current Mobile phone SIM.

You also need to have International Roaming turned on - this may already be done on new SIMs, but probably best to check and test before needing to use in anger! As a previous Corporate customer of Telstra for many years, we found them notoriously bad at setting features on and off when requested. Optus were no better I might add!

Also a suggestion is that calls are expensive ($4/min in 2014), but if only used for an emergency, cost will probably be a major consideration in your thinking.

Originally Posted by Milton477

I have just bought an Iridium 9505a second hand off ebay. I can put my post paid international roaming enabled Telstra NextG sim card out of my mobile into the sat phone & make sat calls.

Originally Posted by laughto

There is a suggestion that cheaper plans may be available as a walk-in to a Telstra shop and asking, or insisting on a cheaper (possibly $10/mth) plan, although some of this info dates back to 2014.

I too have just purchased a 2nd hand Iridium 9505A based on positive feedback regarding the coverage of the Iridium network.

However, I don't have any Telstra mobile products so decided it would be more straightforward to purchase a pre-paid Iridium SIM, eg:
PRE Paid Iridium Satellite Phone Global SIM Card 75 Minutes 1 Month | eBay

This is expensive but I think no worse if you're a non-Telstra customer compared to purchasing a post-paid Telstra SIM.

Regards,
Scott

There's the sat sleeve option too, for iphone and samsung. Not sure what satellite network they are though.

Wouldn't want to run out of credit half way through an emergency call.

Sent from my SM-G900I using AULRO mobile app

If your trips that require them are only infrequent you can hire them as well.

We have bought a Iridium 9575 on a $40/month Pivotel plan.
This is for our bigger trips and our plan is more solo camping/prospecting closer to home where there is no standard mobile coverage.
I can use $5 each month of the $40, so around 10 free text messages if we don't ring out.
If we exceed the $5 it just goes on the next bill, so no loss of use when it's needed the most.
Received calls cost us nothing and the caller is charged normal mobile phone rates.
Our plan is to send a "ring me" text to anyone we need/want to contact when possible.
This plan was the best for our situation and may not suit casual users.


The cradle while handy is just to expensive at @ $1200.00 for the odd time we would use it that way.
If we where full time touring I'd consider it.
Most of the time I plan to have it in a backpack while wandering around digging holes.
I'd like to find a light solid case to put the phone in rather than a bigger pelican case, I'm still looking into this.

Originally Posted by alien

I'd like to find a light solid case to put the phone in rather than a bigger pelican case, I'm still looking into this.

Kyle, I'm looking into ideas for safe storage too, for example:

Small Aluminium Case with Foam Insert (Camera / Video Case) | HB6355 | Jaycar Electronics


or
CASE ABS BLK IPX8 182X120X42MM | Tool Boxes & Cases | HB6421 | Jaycar Electronics


Cheers,
Scott