New Iridium Pre-Paid Plans

[geoffschultz]

I have an Iridium phone aboard for safety and the occasional phone call home. I called on 12/31/2004 to refill my pre-paid card, but Outfitter Satellite, was closed for the holidays. When I got through today I was informed that as of 1/1/2005 minimum size refill that you can get is a $500 + $40 tax! It used to be $200.

For $200 I''m willing to have a sat phone aboard for safety and saying hi to mom & dad every once in a while. But $500 is pushing the limit. I just don''t need 500 minutes of talk time. I''m sure that lots of other cruisers are in the same situation.

So, if you fall into the category of people that consider this a stupid rate plan, feel free to send e-mail to sales@iridium.com and marketing@iridium.com and let them know what you think. I know that I did. I don''t know that it will do any good, but it''s at least worth letting them know what you think.

-- Geoff

[WHOOSH]

Geoff, that''s disappointing news and thanks for sharing it. A friend who''s currently in the Caribbean has tried several of the SatCom services for just the reasons you mention and was pleased with Iridium in part because they had a reasonable ''pay as you go'' rate plan. He''s going to be bummed to learn what you just did.

Jack

[sailnaway]

yes this is a drag I was going to get a phone for safety as well since I was going to have grandkids on the boat. Now I will have to rethink that as the phone is what around $650 and then the service thats $1100 right off so what the heck gouge someone else dirt bag.