Sat Phone, Call Home from Anywhere
Satellite Telephone Options for Boaters

A sat phone, short for satellite telephone, is a top-notch communications option for boaters whose travels require maintaining a voice link to home from far offshore or from an international port of call.

Other options like installing a permanently mounted single side-band radio and all its required accessories can an expensive proposition for any boat owner.

Certainly cellular and VHF communications aren’t the answer either as both will generally not work beyond about 25 miles from shore. A satellite phone is truly the only viable option for clean crisp voice communications when your boat is far offshore and nowhere near the facilities provided by your home port.

Who Are the Players?

Two companies are prominent in the mobile satellite communications marketplace today, Iridium and Globalstar.

Iridium provides voice and basic data communications over a worldwide coverage area using a constellation of 66 satellites. Their satellites in network fly over polar areas about every 100 minutes at an altitude of approximately 500 miles above the earth.

Because these satellites are fast moving and constantly rising above and dropping below the horizon to horizon reach of any individual sat phone calls are handed off from satellite to satellite as needed to maintain a seamless operation. All calls are patched from the satellite network to the terrestrial public telephone system through the Iridium gateway located in Arizona.

Because Iridium uses a high-speed low altitude satellite network its phones can use low power and a small omni-directional antenna to communicate with the satellites. Hardware wise, this translates into more compact telephone designs and lower battery power needs. For the traveling boater it means more mobility and lower costs.

Each Iridium phone has its own number just like your cell phone. Voice calls and text messages can be sent to and from the sat phone via direct dial.

I took a look at the newest satellite phone from this maker, the Iridium 9555, and am in the process of reviewing the slightly older Iridium 9505A. Either of these phones can be either purchased or rented.

Globalstar is another company using a low earth orbiting satellite network to provide both voice and data communications to users.

According to the company, coverage extends over approximately 80% of the earth’s surface, however little to no coverage can be expected over large areas of open ocean. This could be a problem for boaters taking part in a world cruise.

Some of Globalstar’s 40 first-generation satellites are not providing full service. This has reduced sat phone service to some areas and may make it difficult to get a connection and begin a call.

Globalstar has contracted for a second-generation satellite constellation but does not expect launch to begin until the summer of this year.

I have attempted to get the Globalstar GSP-1700 sat phone for review but was rebuffed due to the current degraded performance of the system. Hopefully I will get a chance to review this phone later in 2010.