Thuraya is increasing their coverage south. Last year they did not cover the Selous, but this year they did.

You have to check on their website for coverage.

Peter,

Data on a sat phone can be very expensive, and all the service providers offer them.

Video and photos aon a sat phone are possible, but, again, the expense for these services is enormous.

A lot of the news madia use sat video, but I suppose they can afford it.

It must be an Iridium, as Vaughan emailed me the number for his in camp for emergencies and the number matches. So it appears from here they would dial 011 plus the number Vaughan gave me. Now I just have to get them to understand the time difference as I racall it is 6 hrs now as we on EDST and they use Standard time. Oh man 8 days.

Are there any satt systems or service providers that offer text messages or email services OR both and if so whom are they are what enhanced interfaces are required or is it a special receiver type handset that is needed

Part 2: How does video phone differ from satt phone OR are they one in the same but just with a camera interfaced

Regards, Peter

sat phones have their own "country code".... for Iridium it is 8816.


Best,

JohnTheGreek

If you are going to an area covered by Thuraya, I highly recommend it.

We had both an Iridium and Thuraya phones in Tanzania this year, and the difference in quality is absolutely astounding.

There is no lag time in talking, and the audio quality is much better.

Also, Iridium has a very silly way of billing.

You have to pre-pay for a certain number of minutes - 200 is minimum I think. And if you do not use these within a certain period of time, you loose your money.

You can avoid this by adding more minutes before the time expires, but I think this system is not very fair to those who pre-pay.

Thuraya - at least for us here - is a normal subscriber system.

They bill you for your calls at the end of the month, just like any landline or cell phone you have in your name.

Also, I just looked at my bill for Thuraya, and we paid an average of $0.899 per minute for all calls made. They were to several countries in the world. While Iridium charges something like $1.20 per minute if you pre-pay for something like 3000 minutes in advance.

Saeed,



http://www.satphonestore.com/servprod/iridium/AirTime.htm





Here is a provider with Iridium time in 1000 minute blocks for 99 cents a minute. They expire in one year and can be re-charged in smaller increments to extend the validity of the SIM. Also, there is a place in Seattle I believe reachable via www.portkeeper.net that is selling "africa only" airtime for the Iridium at 83 cents per minute in 300 minute blocks. I have never tried the Thuraya system but have never found the Iridium system lacking in voice quality as long as I wasn't in a canyon or surrounded by tall buildings....but this is in the nature of the satellite system in general I suppose.



Best,



John

Die Ou Jagter,



If you will be hunting there, checking in via the Iridium from camp is much cheaper than having someone call you. That said, emergencies certainly arise where this is not something to be considered. Also, if Vaughan has a pre-paid contract via Iridium, text messages to and email from (160 character limit) a home email address should be free.



If someone must call you in camp, it is also MUCH cheaper to call via the Arizona routing number rather than directly. The gateway/routing number in Arizona is 1-480-768-2500...there will then be a process by which the caller dials Vaughan's sat phone number through Arizona. As I said, this is much cheaper than calling direct but not as cheap as the email/text message option, or just checking in from camp every day or so. If your PH has the Africa plan, minutes will cost you 82 cents each. A call from home to the sat phone, I was told recently, is more than 20 (yes twenty) times that.



Peter,



The Motorola 9505 Iridium offers text messaging that is FREE with pre-paid airtime. I have used this extensively and it is very practical when you just want to let people know you are OK periodically but don't want to burn minutes.



Good Luck,



JohnTheGreek