help me decide on a SAT data service

[damienperu]

Hi all,

I've read many threads here and elsewhere and have been researching for a few days but I find myself going around in circles as to what will meet my needs, maybe because I haven't found anything reasonably priced that satisfies them. I currently have a non-android blackberry, not iPhone, but could reluctantly get an iPhone or less reluctantly an Android smartphone if there was some gadget/app that satisfies my needs. I will be touring from northern Alaska/Canada to southern Patagonia (I can't tell how far into the Arctic circle reception is lost by the geostationary SATs). Below are my "needs" in order of priority, if I can satisfy the first three I'll be very happy, after that everything is a bonus.

1. get access to exchange and/or POP based email when camped for long periods away from cel phone networks.

2. able to subscribe to the service from my current location in Peru.

3. startup costs under $1500.

4. receive incoming email while driving (thus passive external antenna).

5. be able to easily transfer email attachments from SAT device to laptop and visa versa.

6. access in Arctic regions.

Any suggestions will be more than welcomed.

Cheers,

 

[Rando]

Your best (and maybe only option) that meets 1,2,3,4 (5 sort off) and 6 would be Iridium. Be warned, it is going to be expensive, and slow. With any iridium handset ($600 - $1500) you can get 'dial up' (ie PPP) data access either via a serial or USB port. Data rate is low (~2.5kbps base throughput and upto 10 Kbps for compressible data such as text), and expensive at $1 - $2 per minute. If you just want text emails, using an email service like xgate, it would be workable, however forget about uploading photos to your blog, or downloading any email attachments. It does have the advantage that it works for reliable voice communications, requires very little hardware (an external mag mount antenna would be good if you want to use it mobile) and it works everywhere.

You can get significantly higher throughput with an Inmarsat BGAN at a lower cost per byte, but the terminal is above $1500, and the antenna needs to be pointed, so it will not work while you are moving.

 

[Rando]

PS You definitely don't want to use exchange and should avoid POP over a low bandwidth/ high latency connection, as they have a factor of 2-3 data transport overhead. Look into Xgate or SailMail of some other form of email forwarder/protocol for this application.

 

[damienperu]

thanks rando, i can't do much about exchange as that's my work's system unfortunately. but I'll look into Xgate, thanks for the tip. However, the more i look, the more i think i might have to go with BGAN and forget about being contactable when driving and just call in sick with fatigue syndrome when i reach arctic regions!

I just saw that you can get refurbished recent model BGAN terminals and second hand older models for less than $1500, some much less, but I'm not sure if older models will just be slower and more expensive in use.