5 ms·

As a user of one of their products, Iridium Go, I still find it amazing I can place a phonecall in the middle of the Atlantic from my iPhone. My crew and I woul

by yardie 10y ago

As a user of one of their products, Iridium Go, I still find it amazing I can place a phonecall in the middle of the Atlantic from my iPhone. My crew and I would email and browse the web 1000 miles from the nearest tower.

mmastrac 10y ago
What does that cost? I would imagine it's not cheap.
- yardie 10y ago
  Iridium Go terminal is ~$1000. Monthly plan is $130. It includes unlimited data and 150 minutes of air time. Compared to an SSB packet radio setup it isn't that bad.
  - xutopia 10y ago
    What kind of speeds can we expect with the data plan? What about latency?
    - yardie 10y ago
      It's fairly low. 2400bps. Just enough for email and weather gribs. Using the iPhone app the voice calls were surprisingly good. Like you could have a real conversation good, possibly less than 200ms.
      - TylerE 10y ago
        Wow, that's kinda hard to envision. If if you max that out continuously that's only 800MB/month.
        vvanders 10y ago
        Pretty standard for that type of thing. Most packet radio(which is awesome, been playing with APRS) is 1200-9600 baud. CDMA and cellphones are amazing but only work in specific circumstances. HF packet radio is pretty incredible where you can reach.
ezequiel-garzon 10y ago
Thanks for commenting on your experience as a user. Out of curiosity, must the apps "Iridium Mail & Web" or "Iridium GO!" be launched in order to have Internet access? I'm also confused because the official video [1] talks about the former as providing "mobile web access on supported sites". Cheers. [1] https://youtu.be/hcrBE5hkuRU https://youtu.be/hcrBE5hkuRU
- yardie 10y ago
  Yes and no. The built-in firewall effectively blocks pretty much everything except what's whitelisted. So on the settings portal you choose the sites you want to access and they will download a super compressed version for you. Now to get non-whitelisted sites you can install Opera Mobile. The browser that compresses sites for you. I should have done this before our transatlantic but you live and learn. Supported sites are basically weather sites. During our transatlantic I basically used weather 4D and passageweather. Now to your first question you need the Iridium Go app to initiate the connection. Once online any wifi connected device may use it.

by yardie 10y ago

mmastrac 10y ago

What does that cost? I would imagine it's not cheap.

yardie 10y ago
Iridium Go terminal is ~$1000. Monthly plan is $130. It includes unlimited data and 150 minutes of air time. Compared to an SSB packet radio setup it isn't that bad.
- xutopia 10y ago
  What kind of speeds can we expect with the data plan? What about latency?
  - yardie 10y ago
    It's fairly low. 2400bps. Just enough for email and weather gribs. Using the iPhone app the voice calls were surprisingly good. Like you could have a real conversation good, possibly less than 200ms.
    - TylerE 10y ago
      Wow, that's kinda hard to envision. If if you max that out continuously that's only 800MB/month.
      - vvanders 10y ago
        Pretty standard for that type of thing. Most packet radio(which is awesome, been playing with APRS) is 1200-9600 baud. CDMA and cellphones are amazing but only work in specific circumstances. HF packet radio is pretty incredible where you can reach.

ezequiel-garzon 10y ago

Thanks for commenting on your experience as a user. Out of curiosity, must the apps "Iridium Mail & Web" or "Iridium GO!" be launched in order to have Internet access? I'm also confused because the official video [1] talks about the former as providing "mobile web access on supported sites". Cheers. [1] https://youtu.be/hcrBE5hkuRU https://youtu.be/hcrBE5hkuRU

yardie 10y ago
Yes and no. The built-in firewall effectively blocks pretty much everything except what's whitelisted. So on the settings portal you choose the sites you want to access and they will download a super compressed version for you. Now to get non-whitelisted sites you can install Opera Mobile. The browser that compresses sites for you. I should have done this before our transatlantic but you live and learn. Supported sites are basically weather sites. During our transatlantic I basically used weather 4D and passageweather. Now to your first question you need the Iridium Go app to initiate the connection. Once online any wifi connected device may use it.