Thuraya overhauls its prepaid offerings

On May 8, 2009, Thuraya quite unexpectedly discontinued its CLASSIC flat-rate prepaid plan for satellite phones. No new activations are possible, even for the SIM-cards purchased before that date.

All existing Thuraya CLASSIC, SUPER and EASY prepaid accounts have been converted to the new Thuraya PREPAY plan with one-year validity commencing on May 10, 2009. The PREPAY plan features $1.49/min. flat rate to landlines and cellphones around the world, $0.99/min. in-network calling and $0.49 per text message. Incoming calls and messages are always free (for the Thuraya subscriber). The annual fee is $39.00, waived for heavy users (>$1500 of satellite calls per year).

As a result, Thuraya currently offers three prepaid plans: PREPAY, ThurayaECO (cheap calls in 83 countries) and MARITIME.

Thuraya new coverage

Thuraya has finally released their new satellite coverage map. After launching the third satellite, Thuraya’s reach is expanding to the Far East, Southeast Asia and Australia — a good move to compete with Iridium and Inmarsat.

Inmarsat launches ISatPhone

We have another (an quite powerful!) player in the satellite handheld phone business: Inmarsat. Today the UK-based satellite operator and a provider of maritime and portable high-speed Internet data services has unveiled the ISatPhone, its version of the mobile satellite voice service already provided by competitors Iridium, Thuraya and Globalstar. The satellite phone (manufactured by Solectron) will use the capacity of the new Inmarsat I-4 satellite and provide voice and rudimentary data service in parts of Africa, Asia and Australia. Nothing fancy in the legacy handset itself (compared to the new fancy Thuraya phones), which has been inherited from AcES, but Inmarsat is already working on design of a new handset.

Interested? Get a phone or request more info!

Iridium service in flight

Passengers on some long-haul flights of El Al, the Israel’s national airline, can make worldiwide calls from the plane in flight. The service is available on Boeing 767 aircraft to passengers in all classes at a comparatively modest fee of $1.60 per minute. The telecommunications service is provided through the Iridium satellite network and the equipment has been supplied by Gilat Satcom.

When a call is not enough

Fishermen stuck on a lake near Norilsk, a Russian city in the northern Central Siberia, managed to make an emergency satellite call to authorities seeking help. None arrived: the emergency crews couldn’t reach the area due to bad weather and thin ice…

Who can use Inmarsat BGAN

Military Information Technology Online takes a look at various applications of the Inmarsat BGAN products and services. Specific attention is paid to secure and emergency communications in the military and business sgement.

Read article

A new name in the satphone business?

Well, not so new… at least for the satellite industry. For the first time in its history, Inmarsat plc, a UK-based global satellite operator, announced its plans to offer a handheld satellite phone and voice calls in early 2007. For almost 30 years of its history, Inmarsat has been known mostly for its marine-based and high-speed data solutions.

In partnership with ACeS Ltd., an Asian regional mobile satellite operator, Inmarsat will offer an Ericsson-made handheld satellite phone (based on ACeS R190) and voice calls at rates from 25 cents to $1 per minute. The new system will use three new Inmarsat GEO satellites and, possibly, the older ACeS Garuda 1 satellite.

This move puts Inmarsat in direct competition with other two major players: Thuraya and Iridium and will likely result in lower prices for equipment and voice calls, which even now  rarely exceed $1 per minute.

The new venture is the next step in Inmarsat’s mobile line of products. In late 2005, the company introduced the BGAN service, featuring laptop-sized satellite modems and data transfers of up to 492 Kbps. Inmarsat is keen to use ACeS established distribution channels to market the BGAN products on the Asian markets.

As Gulfnews.com reports, the satellite phone market is a $350 million business with 600,000 subscribers.