Does anyone have current info on Sat Phone rental? Who to use (or not). For various reasons back home, it's become a necessity this year for the group to get one. Looking at mobal.com at the moment but may change.

Nope  - Our outfitter doesn't have them available. Continue the search...

zski wrote on Jun 2^nd, 2011 at 5:41pm:

The price is about right.  I just haven't rented from Mobal.com before.  Last time I rented, I rented an Iridium phone.  It worked well whenever used on the northern half of Quetico.  I think the batt's have improved some since I had to take a solar charger along for a 2 week trip.  That made the whole unit a bit clunky.

dd

zski wrote on Jun 2^nd, 2011 at 9:08pm:

Mine was to leave the phone on between 7 and 9 PM each evening.

dd

Snow_Dog wrote on Jun 2^nd, 2011 at 11:32pm:
Sure, glad to, once the 20/20 hindsight is available.

Mobal was pretty good. There were a couple times when we didn't have signal and a few steps away from trees made all the difference. had to call out 3 times, sent and received a few text messages. was no additional charge for the calls or text. flat rate of 108 for the week (did not purchase insurance). never got close to needing battery #2. I'd much prefer not taking one at all but in this case it worked out ok, and would use this provider again if need be. That said, i have no experience with any other sat phone provider.

zski wrote on Jul 14^th, 2011 at 4:49am:

need to adjust the comment about charges. actual total was 135.00. 108 base and 27 for 12 min of talk and 2 sms messages.

I have been using Globalstar and it failing fleet of satellites for many years. I own my own phone and the airtime pricing can't be beat. To help overcome all the deadtime when only faulty satellites are passing overhead Globalstar list on their site the times when a functioning satellite is over the region you have selected. This information is available for about the next two days.

I turn the phone on when my notes say it will work. Each evening when I do this the next batch of call times comes to me via a text message from my wife. She sends me the call times from 6PM to 9PM. There would always be at least 3 call times of about 10 minutes duration. I would also call her each evening and check in. Using this method I was never wasting battery power. I was able to call her most nights and talk for a few minutes. Twenty three days of this and my Globalstar phone still showed half of the battery power remaining.

It was a bit of a hassle but it worked well for us. If you can pick up a used phone cheap and get their unlimited package of text and talk it might be an option.