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IRIDIUM PHONES

R

Reno Tom

Well-known member
Jun 16, 2009
158
52
28
Looking at carrying a satellite phone this year.Anyone have any experiance with the iridium 9555 ?? Thanks
 

subseaaddicted

Member
Lifetime Membership
Jan 6, 2011
50
8
8
41
PG
I have had an iridium 9500 and 9555 for 3 years running the northern lights package.

I also have experience with the Globalstar phones...........and the dreaded inability to make calls.

My iridiums have worked flawless in all the mountain areas of northern BC. I have only ever had a couple dropped calls and every time I have been able to redial again immediately after.

In my experiences, situations and locations I would never venture into the backcountry with any other Sat phone. When my life or the life of others around me potentially might depend on it, I want it to work first time everytime.

Also if you disregard the initially higher cost for the iridium phone, the airtime is very reasonable, and the minutes roll over which is a plus.

As a side note I have converted a few friends over to iridium from other systems, soley based on the fact that mine worked when theres didn't. Same day, same location, same time............I was talking they where wandering around trying to get a signal........ hard to argue those situations.

just my personal experiences
 
H
Oct 30, 2013
3
3
3
Nampa
Uridium is the only way to go.

I also have a Uridium Sat phone and I love it.

I had a Global Star before and it was a piece of crap. They now call there phones Spot. They partnered up with the Spot GPS Locator company and
are now calling them that to get out of the bad name that they made for them selves.

I personally think if you ride any kind of back country or are a big game hunter and go out for days on end a sat phone is the first thing you can have.
Any Emergency you have will pay for it ten fold.

My Experience:
Me and a friend were up hunting last season and after our 8 days in the back country we started our 9 mile hike back to the motorcycles. We got to them and heard a man yelling for help. We went over to the man and he had wrecked on his motorcycle and broken his leg. Riding Goat Trails Alone is Very Stupid as he found out. There was nobody else around and surely no cell service. I used my Uridium to call for Life Flight. They came and recovered the man. I was later called upon by the man and his family. They informed us that the injuries were much worse than we could tell on the mountain. Turns out the man had some internal bleeding and had emergency surgery soon as they landed at the hospital.
Getting lucky by us packing down the mountain that day and having the Sat Phone handy may have saved his life.

Sat Phone = Lives Saved.
 
J

jerrydecoy

Well-known member
May 12, 2011
1,118
525
113
coeurd'Alene, id
I've had globalstar for quite some time and while I will agree with the folks who say their service was not good... Chances are they had service prior to last year. Globalstar finished launching new satellites in August and the coverage is pretty darn good now. I have made calls many times in the mountains and down in hells canyon and the the phone worked well!(this past year). I have friends who have iridium and love the phones but lately I seem to have better service then they do. Which might explain why iridium has plans to launch next generation sats in 2015.Their current sats are having troubles.I don't have a dog in the hunt but I think most have decent service now a days. Globalstar does provide service for spot but my bill still comes from globalstar. They didn't change their name. Cost wise it's tough to beat globalstar but iridium is the only provider guaranteeing service across the globe.
 
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