4 ms·

Expensive relative to what? The consumer grade iridium device is only ~$1000.

• mikeash 12y ago
  Per-minute or per-byte charges are also really high. But that's "high" relative to individuals, maybe not compared to operating an airliner.
  • achamayou 12y ago
    Something like 3USD/min it looks like. At GSM's 13 kbit/s, that's ~0.4cent/kbit. It doesn't sound like a significant cost to report a position regularly at that rate, not compared with the cost of flying an airliner anyway.
  • laxatives 12y ago
    I'm not sure about the details of the plan, but iridium offers unlimited data for something like ~$100/month. I'm sure bandwidth is terrible, but again, these costs are small, even for individuals.
    • mikeash 12y ago
      That's impressive! I severely overestimated the current cost of the service. Here's a page with good info for the curious: http://www.groundcontrol.com/Iridium_Go.htm http://www.groundcontrol.com/Iridium_Go.htm