I am leaving for Tanzania August 3 this year, going to the Kimembaro valley, it is west of the Selous. I need some type of communications with home.
What is a good sattelite phone to rent and from whom? We fly to camp then the next day starts my 7 day hunt, then fly go Dar after 7 days of hunting.

gi - Check with your outfitter/PH/agent in regards to what they use in the camp you are going to. ASSUMING coverage is available (as it is in most of Tanz), the Thuraya are excellent for voice communications. Better quality connections and much fewer dropped calls as compared to the Iridium's I have rented.

Otherwise, both the Thuraya 7101 and Iridium 9505A are relatively small and easy to use. The Iridium can receive (not send) free, short email messages, although nobody seems to find this feature useful but me.

I've used Outfitter Satellite in the past, and they offer weekly, 2-week and monthly rentals. There are others and if you do a google search on "satellite phone rental" you will get a lot of hits.

The DC charger is nice as you can use this in the Cruiser to recharge the battery.

http://www.outfittersatellite.com/rentals.htm#thuraya

Good luck with the hunt, we'll look for a report and some pictures! Regards, Bill

I own an Iridium. The only time I have ever had a problem was when a horse dumped its pack boxes into a river in the Yukon. Not much one can do after one has been dunked in a river.

My Iriduim has always worked fine. It has been all over the world extensively. I have even made calls from hotel rooms and from cars.

No idea where one can be rented.

I just got back from Namibia, I second the Outfitter Satellite Iridium phone. Good service, the phone worked well. Nice to be able to stay in touch with the folks back home, buy a block of prepaid time to lower your per minute cost.

I checked into this a few years ago, so this may be dated information. But be sure to check the coverage areas. If I recall, Iridiums worked great in North America, but didn't cover all of Africa. There was a European outfit better suited for Africa.

gi,

I have been using Thuraya for two and half years now in kenya,Uganda and Tanzania.


Hamdeni

Several compnaies offer sat communications now.

Thuraya, Iridium, Inmarsat etc.

Thuraya has by far the best voice quality, and they do cover all of Tanzania, but not South Africa. Apparently they work by Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe though.

Iridium work all over Africa, but, the voice quality is pretty awful, and one gets dropped calls quite often - At least on the occasions when we have used them.

I have not tried Inmarsat, so cannot tell you much about them.

Last year we used both a Thuraya phone and a Thuraya sat modem to file live reports from the hunting camp.

We have been offered a selection of sat modems to choose from for this year. And the dealer has kindly offered to bring them over to our place next week for a demo.

After that we will decide which one we will take with us this year

Saeed please keep us informed on your pick.

I had a Motorola on the Iridium network that only received but did not send SMS (text) messages. It broke (for no clear reason - it had been carried a lot in the car but no abuse). After the motherboard was replaced along with the LCD display ($US600) it now sends and receives SMS messages. So, I suspect the newer Motorola's also do both.

Text messaging is a great way to keep anxious, aged relatives under control on a daily basis at low cost and without intruding on your safari the way a voice call would.

mike

Hi Gi
Ihave used an iridium 9500 and recently a 9505 with great reliability. My daughter had a 9500 during her years as a Peace Corps volunteer and it was a great help. I agree that the voice quality isn't the best. One thing to check before leaving is the avalilability of recharging. Some generator camps do not have outlets. If this is the case you can use a solar recharger or a vehicle cigarette lighter adaptor. Have a great hunt.

Mike - You are right, I just rented a 9501 (for NA, no Thuraya coverage) and it has the newer software that allows one to send outbound and easily reply to inbound SMS messages (short text emails). Under my rental plan I am charged 1/3 of a minute, and I don't need to connect, just be registered via a satellite. Pretty cool - thanks Mike!!

And I agree that it is an excellent way to stay in touch and/or be available w/o disrupting the flow of the hunt. It is very nice to get a short msg from loved ones when in the bush.

If anybody has a 9500/9501, here are the instructions:

http://www.blueskynetwork.com/Support/Email.php