Question about sat phones

[salve7]

I am a complete newbie to the sat phone world but my sister found one on sale and bought it for me for my birthday. What do I need to do to get started? I don't have the phone yet, so I don't know any details about it, so if anyone could point me to some general resourses I would appreciate it. I will post a pic that she sent me of the phone when I can and maybe someone will know about it or will know if it will even work... like I said it was really cheap...

 

[uli2000]

Is that a Globalstar phone? That's what it looks like. Good news, Globalstar is cheap right now, according to their website, you can have unlimited talk and data for $35/month until the end of the year. Bad news, there's a reason it's so cheap. Their satellites are deteriorating, causing there to be windows when service isnt avalible. They have a tool on their website that can show you call avalibility times. Basically, it looks like about 15-30 mins every hour, it's unavalible where I live.

You will need a clear view of the sky to make a call, and your window may be anywhere from 5-30 mins to make a call, so dont plan on any long conversations. Only other concert I would have is that the phone was shut off for nonpayment, in which case it may be impossible to activate it again.

 

[salve7]

Thanks for the info. It is a globe star so I went to their web site and read up on the situation. Thanks for the help!