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We've Gone Satellite
A Communications Update
7/4/03
Blaine Parks
Janet's
father, Al, passed away in the spring of 2002, while we were in the
Bahamas. His passing was a terrible surprise to us. A bigger surprise was
finding out that our communication solutions aboard Charbonneau weren't up
to the challenge of a family emergency like that. Our cellular phone
didn't work in the Bahamas. Our single-side band radio wasn't much help
for calling home. And our email system - Pocketmail - required us finding
a working pay phone in the Bahamas, which isn't always the easiest thing
to do. With all our technology, Janet and I never had the chance to speak
with Al in the hospital. We vowed to never be in that situation again and,
after searching the Annapolis Boat Show for communications options, we
purchased a Globalstar satellite phone. Here's how it has changed our
lives in the last six months.
Choices, Choices, Choices…
The number
of communication solutions available at the Annapolis Boat Show last
October were staggering. Some were as small as a piece of software and a
tiny black box that enabled users to send emails via a VHF-type radio
system by connecting the black-box to their PC. Others were big enough -
and pricey enough - to satisfy the Donald Trumps of the world. We focused
on the middle ground. Anything we selected - a single item or a
combination of items - had to provide us with the capability of email and
voice connections directly from the boat throughout our cruising area. We
were also hoping to keep our costs in the realm of reasonable.
Our first
solution idea was to take advantage of our existing single-side band radio
for email services aboard the boat. In addition to the radio, which we
already had, we would need to purchase a Pactor II/III Terminal Node
Controller (radio modem). The cost for the Pactor modems ranged from
$700-$1200 depending on transmission speeds and other options. In addition
to purchasing the Pactor modem, we would also need to establish a
relationship with an SSB email provider like SailMail, or others, in order
to send and receive email. SSB email solutions are very robust and
reliable, but we were looking at upwards of $1,000 in new equipment, plus
a monthly contract for the service, and still had no voice communication
solutions for outside the US. We kept looking.
Other
email only options included the small KVH Mini-C satellite communication
systems. The antenna for KVH Mini-C unit is very compact, around 9"
round, and could be mounted on most boats, regardless of boat length.
Emails are sent and received at the cost of one cent per character,
including spaces. That doesn't sound like much until you realize that it
would cost over $27 to send the text in this article so far. That doesn't
include what comes below this paragraph. We have friends who swear by this
unit, however, and have learned to write in a cryptic code that keeps them
in touch with family and friends. The equipment for these Mini-C systems
begins at $2500, more than our budget would allow for an email solution.
We
completely ignored the Mini-M satellite systems offered by KVH. The base
price on the equipment ran over $5,000. These systems provide a complete
solution, however, for all voice, data, and fax communications. The
per-minute cost for calls was listed at between $1.50-$2.50, which
included any long distance charges. Data transfer rates were advertised at
2400 bps, but I heard rumors of improvements in this area. The Mini-M is a
complete solution, but completely outside the realm of our financial
resources.
Two days
into the Annapolis show and we still hadn't found our solution. We began
to concentrate our attention on the handheld satellite phone options.
There are really only two 
players in that market: Iridium and Globalstar.
Iridium is the clear choice for anyone who wants a handheld satellite
phone that handles voice and data (2400 -9600 bps) from anywhere in the
world. But that worldwide coverage doesn't come cheaply. The only phones
that work with the Iridium network are manufactured by Motorola and cost
$2,000. The cost-per-minute for calls was $1.49 when we were shopping, but
may have come down since then. That's still too rich for our pocketbook.
Our Choice
Globalstar's services are similar to Iridium, but their coverage is
basically limited to the northern hemisphere. Our cruising grounds are
already limited, however, because of the quarantine issues associated with
having two large dogs aboard. Because of those restrictions, we plan to
stay within the areas supported by Globalstar as long as the dogs are with
us. Globalstar uses phones manufactured by Qualcomm, which are normally
available for $500, but can be found for as little as $399 if you search.
In our case, we walked past a booth at the boat show where the phones were
being offered for $299. Obviously, we stopped to talk.
The
company offering the phones and Globalstar service at this particular
booth shall go unnamed in this article. They are currently in a large
legal dispute with Globalstar and have had their license to sell
Globalstar service suspended. There's no chance that you'll ever deal with
this company, so it's better to leave them as an anonymous vendor for our
purposes. Based on our personal struggles through this issue, we highly
recommend you only sign service contracts with Globalstar and not a
third-party vendor. At the very least, call Globalstar to research the
good standing of the vendor in question. But, I digress; now, back to the
Globalstar services.
With an
equipment price of less than $450, including a data cable for connecting
our PC to the phone and a 12-volt charger (the unit comes with a 110 VAC
charger as standard), this was looking like a real solution for us. We
thoroughly interrogated the salesperson and tested the phone while in
their booth. We placed a voice call to our friends using the vendor's demo
phone and surfed the Internet using their phone/data set-up. Our friends
sounded like they were just next-door (they were actually two tents away
at the show) and we were able to visit our own webpage while surfing the
Internet. Any solution that allows high-quality pages, like
SailCharbonneau.com, to be viewed is good in our opinion!
But
seriously, the connections were very good and the data transfer speeds
reasonable, so what about the cost of service? Expecting to hear
exorbitant prices, I covered both ears and closed one eye, leaving the
other eye barely open to avoid the pain. The salesman said we could get a
100 minute-per-month package for $59 per month. I did some math before I
opened both eyes and uncovered my ears to make sure I heard him correctly.
Yep, $59 per month for 100 minutes with no long distance or roaming
charges when calling any US number from anywhere within the US and
Caribbean. That's 59 cents-per-minute for those of you without a
calculator, one-third of the competition's prices. Ultimately, we ended up
with a 400 minute-per-month package for $99.95 (before taxes), including
voicemail and free 19-character text messaging. Again for those without
calculators, 25 cents per minute - one-sixth the cost of Iridium. The
service area was right, the cost-per-call was right, and the equipment
cost was right. We bought the phone.
Similar to
the freedom that our watermaker has brought to our boat's water needs, the
Globalstar phone has opened a whole new world of communications for us.
We've seldom used the phone for voice calls over the last six months,
relying more on the capability of email. But there have been times -
holidays, birthdays, and emergencies - where having the phone available to
use anywhere, even in mid passage, has been very liberating. We now check
our email twice daily, morning and night, right from the comfort of our
boat. No longer do we search out pay phones or use our cellular minutes to
check email via our Pocketmail device. With our 400 minute-per-month
package, we have a budget of approximately 13 minutes per day. Checking
our email twice daily uses an average of 8-10 of those 13 minutes. We use
the remaining minutes to call our family and friends when we're outside
our cellular phone coverage area or surf the Internet to handle things
like online banking, investing, and checking on our site. The data speeds
are still only 9600 bps and not suitable for sending large files. We
search out normal land-based connections for sending/receiving large files
or updating our website.
Setting up
our laptop computer to use with Globalstar's data connection required a
simple software installation (included) and the optional data cable
mentioned earlier. One roadblock that we encountered was that our email
provider's (Earthlink) settings had to be changed to allow 'foreign'
logins. When you log into the Globalstar's data services, you don't dial
your own Internet provider's phone number. You dial #777 instead, which
connects you directly to Globalstar's network. From there you can surf the
net without having an Internet provider and could check any of the
Internet-based email services (hotmail, YaHoo, etc.). If you want to use
another provider's email service via MS Outlook or similar programs, most
providers will need you to set this 'foreign' login setting. It was very
simple to do once we understood why it had to be done. Set it once and
forget about it.
One last
note about Globalstar's services is the free 19-character text messaging.
Anyone who knows our 10-digit Globalstar phone number can go to
Globalstar's website and send us a text message of up to 19-characters,
for free. This service is great for those times when our family needs us
to call home immediately or just needs to get us some quick information.
It wasn't a deciding factor in our purchase, but it certainly enhances the
satellite phone experience.
Finishing Up
So if you've
read our earlier communications article, this is how the Globalstar phone
has changed our communications solutions. We no longer use a cellular
modem for email. It worked well, but was limited to the cellular phone's
coverage area. We now use the satellite phone for all our email/Internet
needs other than the large files I mentioned in the last paragraph. We
still maintain our cellular phone service with a reduced package plan,
although some might chose to eliminate that cost entirely. The Globalstar
phone is portable, but bulky. The cellular phone fits on our hip and goes
everywhere we go. The combined service cost of both the satellite phone
and our reduced cellular package is a small $40 per month above our
previous costs - reasonable for the enhanced capabilities we've
experienced.
If I were
to purchase any other Globalstar options, it would be their marine kit.
The unit is similar to the adapters used inside cars for cellular phones.
It places an antenna outside the boat and the phone inside the boat,
allowing for voice and data calls to be made from your boat's cozy
interior.
Globalstar
works for us. It certainly won't be the right choice for everyone, but
that's why there are so many different choices. Our goal is to share those
nuggets of information about services and techniques that work for us via
our website. Globalstar certainly meets the standard for things that work.
We'll see
you on the water.
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