Iphone as a sat phone

[warrenpfo]

Anyone have any thoughts on this

http://www.thuraya.com/SatSleeve

Coverage is not world wide but looks not to bad.

 

[Andrew Brierley]

I have no direct experience of these sleeves. Whilst they appear to be an ideal technology solution, I would strongly advise detailed investigation into the call/data cost implications. iPhones are notorious for racking up roaming charges due to their hidden data traffic, and if this was then transposed onto the Thurya sat charges you might find the need to re-mortage your home when you get back from a trip. Hopefully someone will be able to give some proper guidance....

 

[sae70]

I was at the Emergency Services show in Birmingham a couple of weeks back as a guest of a company who provides private EMS cover at large events all over the world. The chap that owns the company whom we were wandering around with bought a couple from off of the stand following a lengthy discussion with them. The unit is basically a Sat-Phone without a keypad or contacts list and this is what your iPhone provides to it. The iPhone 4 clips straight in, but if you have an iPhone 5 then you'll need an adaptor at extra cost. I've got to say that having handled one and been talked through the concept that if I was in the market for a Sat-Phone I'd be buying a stand alone unit as this not only provides satellite coms, but redundancy should you kill the iPhone in some way! I think that they were £300 plus at the show and you can buy a stand alone Sat-Phone for less than that

 

[Beno]

We have iphone 5c phones and when we go outback we also have a Iridium 9555 Sat Phone. The Nano sim card in the iphone 5C will fit in a adapter then fit into the 9555 sat phone and operate as it should. You do have to have international roaming activated on your account which is a post paid Telstra plan.
We live in Australia and have used it in some outback places where there is no Iphone reception or internet availabe of any form and and the Sat phone works fine. Yes the Bills are a bit dearer if used but hey it is only supposed to be in case of emergency and you can leave it on and still get messages in as well. Just something that works for us Outback downunder.

 

[Ben]

I used one of those sat phones that your I Phone clips into on my Simpson Desert trip last year, to call my mum in the UK on my birthday.

It worked great, couldn't fault it! Very slight delay but crystal clear!