One of the most common questions we get asked is ”Can I use my satellite phone to download Internet?” The answer is yes and no.
We would not recommend Web surfing using an Isatphone pro satellite phone simply because of it has a 2.4 true kbps download speed. It truly isn't fast enough, you see if you take that a standard home phone dial-up speed used to be 64 kilobytes per second, so at 2.4 kbps you’ll be there all day.
So as you can see you waiting a very long time just for one website to appear. However iridium create the opportunity for you to be able to download packets, by having a compression software that you can download from the Internet .
This is most commonly used by yachts or sailing people so they can download weather packets throughout their travels globally. This is how Jessica Watson, the famous youngest female solo yachts lady, who travelled round the world got her weather information .
The Isatphone pro is an ideal satellite phone to download or upload e-mails however Web surfing in our opinion is not recommended due to the download speeds.
The good news is that there is a system because called BGan created by Inmarsat, which allows you to have a satellite modem which weighs about just over a kilo that you can attach to your laptop anywhere on the planet and download at broadband speeds the Internet.
Charged on a megabyte download rate, depends on how much you do, to how much it costs. So if you need to get satellite information back to base rather than wait for the time period then BGan is the way to go.
However it is very common for sailors worldwide to use Isatphone pro handset and an external aerial and cable to be able to download is compressed packets. Iridium have a software disk that comes with their satellite phone and a USB cable, which goes directly from the phone to your laptop and allows you access to iridium web browser that you upload onto your laptop.
So in summary Isatphone pro will allow you to our download and upload e-mails competently. But for Web surfing or the Internet we recommend the BGan broadband modem system. For more information contact us@isatphonedirect.com.au to talk through your options and needs