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Satellite Phones, anyone know anything about them?

Tech Posted by barefootgreg 7 years, 4 months ago

Our operations director has asked about pricing for two of these things and I don't know anything about the market. Are there good ones and bad ones? Buy this one not that one or ABC company has good service but XYZ sucks. That is the kind of insight I'm looking for.

5 replies

  • dewtattoo

    All I know about Satellite phones is: That is what was in the box with the angel wings in the movie Cast Away. It was also solar powered.

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  • barefootgreg

    Well, here it is months later and I am no more versed in sat phones but we now own two of them. I could find little information, other than advertisements, regarding who's phones or service might be better. I even checked with our mobile provider sales agent and her answer was "umm, I think we sell them, let me check". After not hearing anything back I went to their website and searched for "satellite phone", turns out they don't sell them but they do rent them. There was a precarious little "for more information" button so I clicked it and it delivered me directly to the sat phone copany website. So I figured if the mobile company was willing to rent this place's service and phones perhaps they are a good. Turns out it's like buying a cell phone back in the 90's. For $70 a month you get 100 minutes then $1 per minute if you go over, plus they were running a deal for a free phone when you signed up so we jumped in. The phones are reminiscent of the mid 90's cell phones too, except for the BIG antenna. The seemed to work OK, at least in our parking lot. They connected kind of slow, slow to hear ringing that is, but once they started ringing the call was clear and there was no more delay than with a cell phone.
    I didn't post vendor names because I didn't want to seem as endorsing a product or service. But, if you want'em i'll give'em.

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