Satellite Phones: Iridium and Globalstar

Ship-to-shore and ship-to-ship communication is very important to the offshore sailor. In the old days (circa 1980’s) ship-to-shore while doing coastal cruising was done primarily by VHF radio to a ground station who would then patch you through to whoever you wanted to call. Over time, especially close to major urban areas, cellular phones gradually replaced the VHF method. Due to limited cellular coverage many coastal cruising areas were not covered and as well anyone going offshore had to reply on SSB (Single Side Band) or ham radio tranceivers. Please see our link to Single Side Band and Ham transceivers.

In the last 5 years the satellite phone market has matured after several initial bankruptcies and reorganization. The fields has now stabilized into two major players: Globalstar and Iridium.

GlobalStar (Voice and data)

GlobalStar works to about 200 miles offshore and covers the east and west coast of North America as well as most of the Bahamas and Carribean. It features voice and data communication with data transmission rates of 9600 baud. Rates are about 50 cents a minute. You won't have service while mid-ocean on the way to Hawaii with Globastar.

Iridium (Voice and data)

Iridium provides true global coverage with voice and data in a compact cellular phone-like package. Data rates are significantly slower with a rate of only 2400. Rates are considerably more expensive at $1.50 per minute depending on the plan. Click here for more information.

Inmarsat (Voice and data)

This system provides reliable worlwide access in a fixed system. The hardware is rather expensive and rates are $1.50 and up per minute. Click here for more information.

SkyMate (data only)

This new service requires just a few rather inexpensive hardware components and allows data transmission on a character by character rate. Click here for more information on the SkyMate system.