Middle of the Atlantic - Cell Phone Still Works !

[avb3]

Many of us know about the SPOT service.

Now they have a new device that you can use your cell phone to communicate through Facebook, SMS, Twitter and short emails. Looks like it works in all of the Atlantic, not much of the Indian, and some of the Pacific.

And the price is right... $170.

This doesn't replace a satellite phone, but wow, can't go wrong with the pricing and service fees.

[bstreep]

Wow. Pretty cool.

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by avb3

Now they have a new device that you can use your cell phone to communicate through Facebook, SMS, Twitter and short emails. Looks like it works in all of the Atlantic, not much of the Indian, and some of the Pacific.

I didn't catch anything about poor coverage anywhere in the Pacific. Wonder why that might be just the same.

Facebook and Twitter I can live without. But CF...?. I don't even want to try.

[avb3]

Originally Posted by Minggat

I didn't catch anything about poor coverage anywhere in the Pacific. Wonder why that might be just the same.

You have to look at their coverage map, which is here.

[MarkJ]

Facebook and Twitter? Wow! I need that in the mid-atlantic!




Mark

[roverhi]

FWIW, Spot worked for me till the last day out of Hilo on Rhumbline course from SF Hawaii. Coverage maps look to be a bit conservative.

[delmarrey]

As long as it works out of P.I.

If this goes to voice Sat-phones will go out of business. This technology is what I've been waiting for. Would be nice if one can hook it to the computer for the net.

We'll see.

Is anyone here on the CF using it now along with roverhi.

[Blue Stocking]

A year or two back, some fisherman in PFDs, whose boat had sunk, talked the Coast Guard chopper right to them by cell phone.
IIRC, they did not have an Epirb, and phoned a friend, who called in the Rescue.

[Southern Star]

Incredible. Does this require an additional, or special service contract for your cell?

Brad

[Southern Star]

Sorry, just found the rates for their service plans. Very reasonable.

B

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by Southern Star

Incredible. Does this require an additional, or special service contract for your cell?

Brad

It does have to be a smartphone. The frequencies are different in other parts of the world.

[Southern Star]

Its a shame that you can only connect with facebook and twitter - if you could connect with other internet sites it would enable mulitple sources for weather updates. Heck, it would even make Globalstar useful again offshore (right now you need to use their site to determine the best times for calls/data transmission from a particular location and you can't do that offshore!).

Brad

[S/V Alchemy]

I enjoy hearing about these advances, because it's like getting a free belt with my suspenders.

[speciald@ocens.]

That coverage map is the Globalstar sattelite coverage map. Spot uses the Globalstar data system which is better than their voice phone system but still uses low earth orbiting sattelites. There are big holes in coverage in the mid-Atlantic so I don't think you will get any better coverage than with a Globalstar phone while crossing the Atlantic. Globalstar is in the process of launching a new series of sattelites - one launch up and those satelites are supposed to be active. The second group may be active by Spring. Bottom line - no Face Book in the mid-Atlantic, at least for a while. We use our Globalstar phone for email and Gribs between The mid-US and the Caribbean. The phone has an external antenna and the a data connection. The phone can be set up to redial until it makes a connection and transmits and recieves mail. Last Fall, before the launch of new sattelites, it could take an hour to connect. We use a data compression utility that compresses web pages so that we can follow the news at home.

[CarlF]

It looks great but it is one way, right? You can only send and can't receive.

Carl