Example: My boss is based in the UK so I would have him dial the UK prefix then the sat number.

Seeing that Skype isn't a public switch telephone network I assumed that this would not work.  It would interesting if we could get a satellite number to test on.

Out of all the iridium service companies and providers I've been most impressed with your sites information, although disappointed with the no response to my web site inquiry. We get the answers we can make a very quick decision to purchase. We will purchase in the states through a Biogreen Oil entity there and ship down to myself in Brazil.

For free satellite phone rental support by email, please use the "contact us" form. This is for free and general Iridium satellite phone questions on prepaid cards or postpaid service plans.

Satellite Phone Canada

Last update - May 6, 2011

Satellite Phone

A satellite phone is a mobile telephone which communicates using satellites instead of using cell towers.  A satellite phone is a powerful tool to have in your belt when you're out traveling and it is ideal for foreign correspondents, expeditioners, production crews, and anyone else who will need to maintain contact with the world whilst in a remote location.  However, a satellite phone is about 10 times as expensive as a conventional cellular phone, and that doesn't include connection rates of close to $2 a minute plus any long-distance charges.

The satellite phone is a briefcase-shaped device with its flap serving as an antennae.  Unlike a mobile phone, a satellite phone is independent of land links and is hooked onto a network of satellites covering the globe.

A satellite phone is a special kind of mobile phone that is designed to permit voice and data transmission via satellite.  If you work, live or travel in areas outside cellular coverage or in areas within adequate landline service, a satellite phone is for you.

The wireless satellite phone is enabled by GMSS (Geostationary Mobile Satellite Standard), the satellite technology derived from the GSM standard.

Journalists, people in the military, and politicians who travel the globe all know the advantages of having a satellite phone.  With one of these devices you are able to communicate with anyone with a phone number from almost anywhere.

Although the satellite phone has made great strides in the past few years, the sat phone more closely resembles your portable home phone or one of those clunky cell phones from fifteen years ago.

Although you can call or receive calls in the middle of nowhere with a satellite phone, there are downsides.  Most phones need a clear "line of sight" to the satellite.  An errant cloud or two may not affect your phone transmission but a solar flare might.  The phones can come with extension cords connecting the phone to the antenna, allowing the antenna to be outside and you to be inside, making the call.

Another downside of the satellite phone is the limitations of bandwidth.  Some satellite phones use a narrow band, sending along your audio signal, but they cannot handle the high bandwidth information at near the speeds you find at home.  This means that you can have internet access, but for these phones that access is slow.

Satellite phone technology is advancing every day, so look for newer and better options for the world traveler.  Like cell phone companies, the satellite service provider often offers phones as well as the service in a neat little package.  If you don't intend to hook it up to a computer to send data and don't need to talk for long, then there is no need for the latest word in satellite phones.  Three major satellite phone networks are currently in operation: Iridium, Globalstar and Thuraya.

The use of low earth orbit satellites helps minimize round-trip-time, which greatly improves the perceived quality of the phone call.  Satellite phone calls are routed directly from one handheld unit to another, or to a terrestrial network.

A satellite phone rental gives you an opportunity to go anywhere with the confidence of knowing there is a phone you can use, and spare yourself the embarrassment of begging to use the only phone for miles or trying to find a payphone in some remote location.

Iridium Satellite Phones

Iridium Satellite LLC, a privately held company, is the only provider of truly global satellite voice and data communications solutions with complete coverage of the entire Earth including oceans, airways and even Polar Regions.  With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.  The company supplies both voice and data connections and it also designs, builds and sells its products, solutions and services through a worldwide network of more than 150 partners.  

Iridium is a profitable company and has been since 2004.  For a company like Iridium, whose satellite network services run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, non-disruptive data migration is essential.  The company is focusing on specialized users: the military, the news media and the maritime industry.

The company's name comes from the platinum metal with atomic number 77 in the periodic table of elements, a reference to the initial plan to place 77 satellites in space.

Iridium delivers reliable, secure, real-time, mission-critical communications services to and from areas where landlines and terrestrial-based wireless services are either unavailable or unreliable.  Iridium is a mobile satellite service that provides ubiquitous, gap-free, reliable coverage over Polar Regions, which are used by aircraft on international flights.

Iridium’s constellation of 66 low-earth-orbiting (LEO), cross-linked satellites (and multiple in-orbit spares) provides critical voice and data services for regions not served by other communication networks.  In addition to providing voice service, Iridium is marketing data communications for shipping companies that want to remotely monitor containers in transit.  They're targeting a much broader market of average business people and vertical markets like maritime, mining, forestry-people who operate in remote locations and they don't have access to cell, or in some cases, any phone service.

Its 66 satellites provide 100% coverage of the globe, enabling callers to talk from high peaks or the middle of the high seas, and from practically anywhere in a largely unwired Third World.  To provide uninterrupted coverage around the globe, Iridium operators choreograph an intricate dance in space, monitoring the satellites as they speed along at 17,500 mph in crisscrossing paths 480 miles above Earth's surface.

Their network support a variety of satellite phones.

Globalstar Satellite Phones

Globalstar is a limited partnership founded by Loral Space and Communications Ltd  and it is the world's most widely-used handheld satellite phones, providing high-quality, low-cost voice and data services to businesses, communities and individuals around the world.  It is a consortium of leading international telecommunications companies originally established in 1991.

Globalstar is a leading provider of global mobile satellite telecommunications services, offering both voice and data services from virtually anywhere in over 110 countries around the world.  The Globalstar is less expensive to purchase and operate than the Iridium and Inmarsat phones.

Globalstar's technology relies on a constellation of 48 satellites which connects with local wireline and cellular service providers to offer communications service virtually anywhere in the world.  They will meet the needs of cellular users and global travelers who roam outside of cellular coverage areas, as well as residents of under-served markets who will use Globalstar's fixed-site phones to satisfy their needs for basic telephony.

The company uses regional gateways to route calls from the satellite network to the destination phone number.  Their satellite constellation was repositioned in the period between mid-October 2006 and February 2007 in preparation for the expected insertion of 8 additional first generation satellites sometime in 2007 to replace satellites that have degraded.  Globalstar also stated that their expectation is that: “With the successful launch of eight new (first generation) satellites scheduled for this year, along with our existing satellite network, Globalstar will continue to provide and support two-way voice and data satellite services to our customers through the launch of the second-generation constellation”.

Globalstar phones are capable of making calls in most weather conditions.  Globalstar's mobile satellite phones, only slightly larger than traditional cellular phones, are built by three of the world's top wireless manufacturers, Ericsson, QUALCOMM and Telit.

Globalstar offers an array of products and satellite phone services, designed to support almost any data or voice communications application wherever you live, travel or work.

Globalstar satellite phones function as both cellular and satellite phones providing service in many areas where cellular and landlines may never be able to go.  Globalstar automatically searches for a connection to the more cost-efficient analog or digital CDMA cellular networks.

As said before, Globalstar mobile phones function as both cellular and satellite phones providing service in areas where many cellular and landlines may never go.  They offer both voice and data services from virtually anywhere in over 110 countries around the world and they have an established network of over 340 distribution locations across North America, featuring a combination of wireless carrier outlets, satellite and two-way radio specialty communications dealers, and distributors with a specific vertical market focus.

Globalstar service is a satellite radio technology subject to transmission limitations caused by type of terrain, service area limits, customer equipment use and other variable conditions including the functionality and orbital locations of the satellites themselves.

The fixed satellite phones use Qualcomm's Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology to operate on the Globalstar satellite communications system.  The fixed satellite telephone is an affordable solution, providing subscribers with a versatile and dependable phone for anywhere, anytime global communications.  Globalstar will meet the needs of cellular users and global travelers who roam outside of cellular coverage areas, as well as residents of under-served markets who will use Globalstar's fixed-site phones to satisfy their needs for basic telephony.

Satellite phones tend to be larger than cell phones and drop more calls.  On the other hand, Globalstar satellite phones can provide communication services from remote locations where cellular service is not available.  If cellular service is available where you're going, there probably is no reason to have a satellite phone.

Your Globalstar phone must maintain a direct line of sight with at least one satellite in order to make a call.  Globalstar phones are capable of making calls in most weather conditions.  By default, your Globalstar phone tries to use the strongest signal available to it.  It is the customer's responsibility to notice if his or her Globalstar phone has switched to a roaming service as indicated on the LCD screen of the phone.  If the phone is positioned on a black surface (such as asphalt) in direct strong sunlight, the temperature near the surface can be remarkably hot.

Thuraya Satellite Phones

Thuraya is a US $ 1 billion mobile satellite telecommunications project that serves about 100 nations in Europe, Africa and Asia.  Thuraya is a leading regional satellite services provider of mobile satellite services, offering voice and data connectivity to subscribers and it is based in the UAE.

Thuraya is the only mobile satellite service on the global market capable of providing voice, messaging, SMS and e-mail from a mobile the size of a GSM: the perfect solution for both personal and professional use for less than $1 per minute.  Thuraya is ideal for international professionals who work in construction, mining, oil & gas, for NGOs, media organizations or the army, who need to remain constantly in touch, on a restrictive budget.

Thuraya is the arabic word for the constellation of stars known as "The Pleides" or "The Seven Sisters".

Thuraya is a regional satellite network that uses a geosynchronous satellite which is a much higher orbit (about 22,000 miles) than the LEO satellites used by Iridium or Globalstar.  This means Thuraya is very suitable for light to moderate data applications such as email or web browsing.  Positioned as the satellite mobile operator that is most similar to the familiar GSM service, Thuraya is continuously adopting and providing service features that are popularly offered by GSM systems.  The reach of Thuraya is vast as it has 80 partners in 3 continents enabling wider coverage outside the footprint area.

Currently serving  250,000 customers with high-quality mobile voice and data services, Thuraya is one of the world’s leading satellite operators, with coverage reaching more than two billion people across Europe, North and Central Africa as well as large parts of Southern Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia.  Please take into consideration the fact that Thuraya is a radio communication system that covers around 120 countries and although all kind of precautions are taken well in advance, sometimes an interfering source, which is not even operating in the same frequency bands, could cause interference to Thuraya services.

Now, Thuraya is serving the world's largest subscriber base of handheld mobile satellite services and has sold over 341,000 handheld terminals since its commercial launch in 2001.  Thanks to these characteristics, Thuraya is the most modern means within world satellite phone market; a fundamental device both for professional and private environments like boat owners, mountaineering and trekking, international travels.

Inmarsat Satellite Phones

Inmarsat is the pioneer of global mobile satellite communications and delivers broadband communications solutions to land, maritime and aeronautical users around the globe. Inmarsat is an international satellite communications system that currently provides voice and data services to over 25,000 mobile users on ships, land vehicles, and aircraft. 

Inmarsat is a world-leading provider of global mobile communications via satellite. Inmarsat is an internationally owned co-operative of 85 member countries that provides mobile satellite communications world-wide. It is headquartered in London and has a regional office inDubai, serving the Middle East and Africa, and Singapore servingthe Asia Pacific region. 

Their technology is based on geo-stationary satellite technology which, because of satellite height, requires high-power terrestrial terminals and highly directional dish antennae which must be accurately pointed to the satellite at all times.

Inmarsat Ltd has a portfolio of mobile satellite solutions, including voice, fax, intranet and Internet access and other data services. They have 25 years' experience in designing, implementing and operating satellite networks. Inmarsat Ltd is also supported by partners in the fields of equipment manufacture, software provision and systems integration. 

Inmarsat operates seven satellites, including the first three of the third-generation Inmarsat 3 series and one Inmarsat2 satellite. They own and operate the world's most advanced fleet of commercial mobile communications spacecraft, flying in geostationary orbit, 35,786km (22,240 statute miles) above the Earth. 

At the end of December 2003, approximately 290,000 terminals were registered to access Inmarsat Ltd's services. End-users can dial into the international telephone network and send data over the Internet at any time, from anywhere, simply by connecting to an Inmarsat satellite. It is important to note that Inmarsat is a commercial system; in most cases individual users are responsible for charges incurred through use of the system. Inmarsat charges range from 6-10 dollars per minute depending on the time of day the system is used.  

Through a linkage with the shipboard computer network, it is possible to send and receive E-mail via Inmarsat. Users will be recharged at a later date in proportion to the volume of data they transferred via Inmarsat. The Inmarsat system consists of three components: (1) the space segment and its support structure; (2) gateway earth stations for maritime, land, and aeronautical mobile satellite services(respectively MMSS, LMSS and AMSS); and (3) mobile terminals of various classes suitable for operation on all kinds of vehicles. The first series of satellites used by Inmarsat, starting in 1982, was leased from several sources: COMSAT (MARISAT), ESA (MARECS), and INTELSAT (ISV-MCP), MARISAT and MARECS being precursor demonstration services and the MCP being a maritime communications package on some INTELSAT Vs. The two most heavily used systems are the sound powered phone and the Navy style intercom. The sound powered satellite phone is very desirable aboard ship as it continues to function under all operating conditions and can be relied on during times of power outage.

A number of spaces are equipped with ordinary telephones which can be used to call other spaces within the ship or to call out from the ship. The ship's telephone system is also linked to the Inmarsat system. From any telephone on the ship one can direct dial any other telephone in the world.

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