Iridium Extreme Video

Iridium Extreme – Coming Soon!

A Satellite Phone with a tracking system is just the product that we have been waiting for. Now you will be able to not only call friends and family or even the office from the middle of nowhere, but you will be able to keep track of yourself or have someone keep an eye on you with the built in tracking features in the new Iridium Satellite Phone called the Iridium Extreme.

“A new force in mobile communications has arrived. It is the first phone to combine location awareness, SOS, and market leading toughness. No other satellite phone lets you take so much with you in hand, all over the world.” For more info, have a look at the Iridium Extreme product page.

International roaming

International roaming doesn’t have to be associated with huge cell phone bills all the time. There is a cheaper solution.

Forbes.com “Travelgeek” Marc Tobias has some advice on how to save money on calls and data from a cruise ship: “My least expensive communications tool is my Iridium satellite phone,” he writes. “It works from virtually any place on Earth.” Travellers without an Iridium phone who use their cell phones onboard might “return to the U.S. and find roaming charges for hundreds or thousands of dollars. …Cellular voice rates can vary but you can expect to pay between $2.49 and $4.99 per minute to make or receive a call, depending upon your home carrier rates.”

Source: Iridium 360

Does your Iridium 9555 display the wrong language?

Has someone been playing with your phone or did you select the wrong language? If your satellite phone is displaying an unknown foreign language and you would like to restore it to its original setting then follow the below for the Iridium 9555 Satellite Phone:

• Power on the phone
• Press left soft key for menu
• Press down 6 times for setup, then left soft key for select.
• Press down 3 times for Languages, then left soft key for select.
• Press left soft key for select, then select your language that you would prefer…

Iridium 9555 Speakerphone

Did you know that the Iridium 9555 satellite phone has a built in loud speaker? In order to allow a call to be shared with other people within close proximity to your satphone, you can use the Speakerphone feature. In this mode the speaker in the rear of the phone is used instead of the  normal earpiece/receiver.

To use the speakerphone:

• Press then right soft key
• To switch back to the earpiece: Press the right softkey again.

Iridium 9555 Battery

If you having a problem with your Iridium 9555 Satellite Phone Battery draining to quickly then check the below:

• Are you in an area of variable coverage? This uses extra battery power.
• Is your antenna fully extended and correctly angled? Do you have a clear unobstructed view of the sky? This helps use less battery power.
• Is it a new battery? A new battery needs 2 to 3 charge/discharge cycles to attain normal performance.
• Is it an old battery? Battery performance declines after several years of use.
• Are you using your satphone in extreme temperatures? At extreme hot and cold temperatures, battery performance is significantly reduced.

Emailing from Isatphone Pro

Did you know?

You can send a short email of less than 160 characters directly from your Isatphone Pro. Here’ s how:

- Select Menu and then Messaging

- Select New Message and then Select New Message, again

- Select Email Message

- In the “To” field, type in the email address.

- Then type the email address taking into account the character limit at the top left of the screen.

- Select Options and then Send

South Africa to London on a Bike

Inmarsat is sponsoring a cyclist who is heading on a 12-month cycle on a tandem bike from South Africa to London for charity.

Stuart Block, a 32-year-old teacher from Cranleigh School near Guildford, Surrey, is setting out from Johannesburg on 23 July and aims to reach London in time for the 2012 Olympics.

Stuart’s ambition is to raise up to £100,000 for charity and also highlight educational challenges in Africa.

He will be equipped with an IsatPhone Pro and a BGAN terminal, which he will use to update his blogs with news and imagery on his 10,000-mile trip through 15 countries.

Stuart’s main charity is Beyond Ourselves, a Christian charity that aims to make a difference to African communities.

Its vision is to help orphans and vulnerable children in Zambian communities and, in time, to set up self-sustaining businesses.

Stuart also plans to take part in an equatorial triathlon when he is in Kenya.

“I’ve not found any mates who want to do the whole thing with me, but plenty who were keen to do bits, so attempting the whole thing on a tandem seemed the ideal compromise,” he said.

“I have about 25 people who plan to join me for part of the trip and up to 100 have expressed interest.”

A key partner for Stuart’s trip is the Right to Sight charity, which trains eye surgeons in Africa. He hopes to be joined by sight-impaired people on the bike for at least some of the way.

View the Route below:

View Beyond The Bike in a larger map

Source: Inmarsat

Beyond the bike (Stuart’s site):www.beyondthebike.org

How to unblock an Iridium Satellite Phone

If you have mistakenly entered you PIN too many times, your Iridium Satellite Phone will show the message ‘Blocked’ on the screen. To unblock, follow the below:

1.  Turn on the Iridium Satellite phone
2.  Enter the following sequence * * 0 5 * on the keypad.
3.  Press the green button
4.  Enter the PUK 1 code (If you do not have this then contact us)
5.  Press ‘OK’
6.  You will be prompted to enter a new PIN Code. Choose a 4 digit number.
7.  Repeat the entry of this number when prompted.
8.  The screen will now show ‘COMPLETED’

Next-generation internet successfully trialled

IPv6 is the next-generation version of internet protocol (IP), the system by which much of the world’s digital information is transferred across networks. Next-generation internet protocol (IP) services have been successfully trialled across Inmarsat’s BGAN network.

The event, sponsored by the Internet Society, aimed to motivate organisations across the ICT industry to prepare their services for the introduction of IPv6. Major organisations such as Google, Facebook and Yahoo! were among participants who offered their content over IPv6 for a 24-hour ‘test flight’, which enabled Inmarsat and Thrane & Thrane to demonstrate BGAN’s compatibility with the new protocol.

The IPv6 over BGAN trial, undertaken by Thrane & Thrane using an EXPLORER 500 land mobile terminal, involved successfully establishing an IPv6 connection from Windows and Apple-based computers via Inmarsat’s BGAN network to the public IPv6 Internet.

” These successful trials illustrate our continued commitment to upgrading and enhancing our product and service portfolio, and constitute a key milestone in Inmarsat’s roadmap to support IPv6 and other advanced services in the future,” said Richard Denny, senior vice-president of global networks and engineering division at Inmarsat.

“Inmarsat intends to work with its community of technology and distribution partners to ensure the complete readiness of the portfolio of BGAN user terminals and the BGAN ground network in preparation for the future era of IPv6 Internet access.”

Source: Inmarsat