Does anyone know anything about satellite phones and plans?

My neice's husband has been sent back to Iraq. For the past few weeks, the soldiers in his company have been allowed one 15 minute phone call per week. Starting next week, they'll be moving and may not be able to call again for months. He and some of his buddies are interested in purchasing a satellite phone so they can stay in contact with their families.

I've searched around on the 'net. The phones I've found range from $400 - $1400 and the plans run $25 - $40 per month + .99 to $1.40 per minute for an Iraq-USA phone call.

What's the best phone, the best service, and the best deal????

TIA

Peekaboo might know something about this type of equipment. You could check with her.

or ask thegoul, he's been there...

Peekaboo & theghoul have PM

Thanks for suggesting I contact them

I believe theghoul is deployed??

Get a free/decent GPRS deal from T-Mobile, if you can get them (they don't service NC)
Sat phones are NOT worth it.
Very soon the cell structure will be much better. The contractor introducing cell service in iraq is sort of set up like TracPhone here...you buy the phone $100 and have to buy cards...$15 cards have to be purchased every 15 days, $30 30 days, etc. The problem with that is whether or not the Soldier will ALWAYS be sure to have access to a point of sale, which is not always the case. All in all the cost comes out the same using T-mobile as using a local provider there...then add in the hassle factor of remembering to buy cards...
JMHO of course, but I did check into all of this and that was my decision.
HTH

We are dealing with the same issue. The cell structure here is still being worked on. It'll be much cheaper to buy a GSM local phone.

Sat phones are very expensive, my platoon looked into a few and realized that we couldnt afford them, even with Hostile fire pay.
Also, the unit he's with may not allow that type of communcation for individual soldiers. We cant have cell phones here.

The Internet with Voice over IP works fairly well. The units will have a two way sat dish (usually 1meg down and 256 up). It beats having nothing. Tell your hubby to remember OPSEC though. He'll know what that means.

Remember Freedom isnt Free!

Glad to hear from you, thegoul

Thank you theghoul!

so you mean i shouldnt call and tell my friends my coordinates?

Since ghoul mentions they have a decent internet connection i would go with voip too. Nikotel has software based one (if you are able to install it on the computer). so all you would need is a headset. Probably not as good as a cell since you are probably limited in your time on the internet like phones.

since they got net access, what wrong with IM like Y! messenger, that has voice/video options, too, unlimited AND free....?

they get about the same amount of time online as they do phone calls.
It all depends on where the Soldier is, the command, the schedule, etc.
GSM phones give you access to Yahoo and aim messengers too at the data rate...assuming they get a gprs connection...

I really appreciate all of the information. THANK YOU!!!

I'll check out all of your suggestions this weekend