Satellite phone

[JCross]

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?

 

[Offroadnutz]

I've always used the Spot text messenger..

 

[lolzhax]

I don't have experience with sat phones but another option may be to pickup a Starlink mini from Home Depot. Then you can do all the things that you could with wifi.

 

[smritte]

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.

 

[JCross]

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.

 

[shrdt]

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]

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.

 

[highboy4x4]

Love my Starlink and the 3D printed magnetic mount!

 

[itsdchz]

Yes Starlink Mini on our Grenadier!

 

[Sparksalot]

I was in New Mexico a couple of weeks ago. I had recently bought a starlink mini to allow me to work from the road. I planned to spend three nights atop a mesa. The transmission in my truck blew up just as I arrived. i had intermittent cell signal. The next morning, no signal, so I used the starlink to make Wi-Fi calls to arrange a shop and a tow truck.

After coasting downhill 7 miles to get to pavement, I had no signal there either. Again starlink to let the tow driver know where I was.

the tow on pavement only was $130 to get to town. An off-road recovery would have definitely cost more than the price of the starlink.