Satellite Phones To Make A Comeback?

Satellite phones might be been rather useful back then, but they aren’t used by most consumers nowadays. They still won’t be used by most consumers, what with their big antennas and all, but they’d be extremely useful when a user goes to a place that has no cellphone coverage, such as in a jungle or way out in the ocean.

Thuraya is a satellite communications company who specializes in this niche market, and they’re aiming to make satellite phones more pocket-friendly, even though it still looks light years away from competing with normal phones in terms of looks.

The Thuraya SO-2510 claims to be the world’s smallest and lightest satellite phone. At a mere 130g, nobody is going to refute that claim. The long and ugly antenna that is present in all satellite phones is still ever-present, albeit retractable, which makes it much easier on the eyes when kept in a pocket. The built-in GPS receiver works with SMS, and allows the unit to send location coordinates in the event of an emergency. It has a talktime of up to 2.4 hours, and standby time of over 40 hours. The SO-2510 is going for $800 and works only the Thuraya network. There are prepaid plans that are going for $0.90 a minute, or the postpaid plan that ranges from $20 to $400.

The Thuraya SG2520 on the other hand, has an added GSM radio, which allows the handset to be used with any GSM account, which will be much cheaper, compared to satellite calls. This $1,000 phone includes a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth and USB connectivity as well as SD card expansion. Talk time is the same as the SO-2510, though if users use a GSM SIM card, the talktime can be increased to 4 hours and standby for 75 hours. With the impressive feature set, it seems almost on par with most phones nowadays, albeit it’s a little heavy at 180g.