The Iridium 9575 Extreme Satellite Phone Hands-on Preview: The Ultimate Phone An

[Guest]

It’s the “smart” in smartphone that you did not see coming.

The Iridium 9575 Extreme Satellite Phone Hands-on Preview: The Ultimate Phone Anywhere on the Planet : Read more

 

[Guest]

What maintenance goes into the satellites in low earth orbit? When the zombie apocalypse happens, how long before the satellites die out?

Since the phone can be charged by solar I was thinking about one of these for my emergency kit.

 

[alidan]

i dont care who you are or what you do,

if you ever do something stupid, or go to insane areas where no cell service will ever find you, this phone is a must.

remember this is an emergency phone, think of it like a life vest on a boat.

 

[iceman1992]

Would love one if they bring the prices down

 

[zaznet]

[citation][nom]iceman1992[/nom]Would love one if they bring the prices down[/citation]

More subscribers can bring a lower price. With the high cost of international roaming on cellular networks it is a good investment for those who need a true global phone.

 

[dark_lord69]

This phone would have saved about 98% of the people on the show "I Shouldn't Be Alive".

 

[Dragoon21b]

Just for travel? You have obviously never been out in deepest darkest west Texas or the outback of Montana

 

[zetzabre]

well, it should be good for insane areas, but for people who live in cities (the great majority), that phone is just crap.

Anyway, "smart" is a relative term. For some this phone is smart. For me, that phone is an extreme area survivor (in terms of call signal).

For me, a "smartphone" is a phone that can understand the requirements of the user with very few commands (if none, it's even better), and can get additional functions in little time (that's why all actual smartphones can get applications throught the internet). It's true that updates and reboots are annoying, but the "real smartphones" can be programmed to apply the update in specific times (for example, at 3:00 am, when i'm sleeping). Battery life is another issue, so a smartphone must use the resources very efficiently (not using full power when not needed is one of the good ways, and the addition of solar power could be good).

Don't take me wrong Wolfgang Gruener, but for me your article is totally out of place. You should first read the definition os "smart" and "smartphone" and then write an article about smartphones.

And for all users: Sorry for my bad english, i'm still learning...

 

[shin0bi272]

Thanks for this review. Ive been hoping to see some satellite phones coming to the public sector market for about 10 years now. In fact I had originally refused to buy a cell phone due to spotty coverage in remote areas (or even in my apartment complex in the middle of durham ironically) claiming untill they had a sat phone with cell service and gps I wouldnt get one. Well the cell phone market exploded and they now have cell and gps and are just missing the sat portion. So now we are starting to see some sat phones hitting the market and as soon as they converge with something like the iphone or samsung galaxy (like say while on wifi or cell you can do all the smart phone stuff but while on sat its just for voice, text, and email) then it will be the ultimate phone.

 

[razor512]

why not take the normal satellite phone service, then offer a price that is reasonable, at least compared to services such as satellite TV where instead of dealing with 2.4kbit of info, they are sending out 500+ 8-20mbit streams on each satellite and still manage to charge $60 per month

if they were to lower their price to like $30 a month for unlimited usage, then you would see almost every frequent traveler get a satellite phone and they will probably turn a much larger profit

 

[Guest]

I presume you did this review before Iridium recalled all the 9575s? Once again Iridium have launched a product (remember openport) that they've had to recall!

 

[ashesofempires04]

[citation][nom]Razor512[/nom]why not take the normal satellite phone service, then offer a price that is reasonable, at least compared to services such as satellite TV where instead of dealing with 2.4kbit of info, they are sending out 500+ 8-20mbit streams on each satellite and still manage to charge $60 per monthif they were to lower their price to like $30 a month for unlimited usage, then you would see almost every frequent traveler get a satellite phone and they will probably turn a much larger profit[/citation]

Their satellites probably aren't designed for that. All satellites are not created equal, and we're talking about a constellation of them that was developed for this express purpose, not piggybacked off of someone else's equipment.

Modern TV satellites are most likely a few orders of magnitude more capable than the Iridium network.

 

[Guest]

What's more interesting, (if I'm wrong, please correct me) is that Iridium phone would work without any special adjustments on the ISS. Wouldn't it?

 

[sirencall]

[citation][nom]ashesofempires04[/nom]Their satellites probably aren't designed for that. All satellites are not created equal, and we're talking about a constellation of them that was developed for this express purpose, not piggybacked off of someone else's equipment.Modern TV satellites are most likely a few orders of magnitude more capable than the Iridium network.[/citation]

True in part since those companies have updated their satellites since the 80's but there is another factor to consider....Tv is a one way feed, while the phone network also requires data to be fed back which cuts bandwidth per user. S0 take 1000 mbit stream and divide that by 15,000 people and suddenly bandwidth vanishes.

 

[whimseh]

No.

 

[manontheground]

I'd check with Iridium before getting one of these. They were all recalled due to a fault. I think it was with the antenna.