Satellite phone

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JCross

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Decatur, AL, USA
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John
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Cross
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42805

My wife wants to be able to talk to our daughter while on the CDT. Does anyone have any experience with renting a satellite telephone?
 

smritte

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My experience is based on my brother-in-law using them. this data will be a couple years old.

About 100 a month for up to two hours of talking and two to three dollars a minute after that. You want an iridium phone. Not sure what the phone rental will be on top of that.
I was heading that direction a few years ago. the cost of a decent phone was around $1000 new and about 2/3 of that used. Then star link came out and I haven't looked back. The cost of the phone and a month of service puts you close to the cost of star link. I turn my star link service on and off as needed. You can either mount it or just throw it on the dash. You now have phone, texting, and internet. If you use a mapping program, uploading new areas is almost not needed.
 
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JCross

Rank IV
Member

Enthusiast III

1,277
Decatur, AL, USA
First Name
John
Last Name
Cross
Member #

42805

My experience is based on my brother-in-law using them. this data will be a couple years old.

About 100 a month for up to two hours of talking and two to three dollars a minute after that. You want an iridium phone. Not sure what the phone rental will be on top of that.
I was heading that direction a few years ago. the cost of a decent phone was around $1000 new and about 2/3 of that used. Then star link came out and I haven't looked back. The cost of the phone and a month of service puts you close to the cost of star link. I turn my star link service on and off as needed. You can either mount it or just throw it on the dash. You now have phone, texting, and internet. If you use a mapping program, uploading new areas is almost not needed.
I'll be checking into Starlink soon. Thanks for sharing.
 
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shrdt

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Steve
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Hardt
Another option is with T-Mobile. If you have a newer phone your phone can connect to Starlink Sats when out of service area and you will be able to text message. I think next year you will be able to do voice calls too. Right now it's in beta and can try it with a year free sat service for a year.
 

MOAK

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Star link and any upcoming competitors will make Sat phones, garmins, etc etc, obsolete. Very soon a Starlink antenna will not be much larger than a phone. Being full timers having the mini keeps us from having to get back “on grid” to pay bills, make appointments, contact the kids and grandkids. We have the basic plan- $50 a month and a dollar a gig after 50.