Lesson #1: don't bother with a satphone

One of the items on my pack list was a satellite phone. I thought it was not only essential but also handy, as it came with apps for “web and mail”. The idea of being able to contact anyone at any time, as long as you could see the sky, was pretty cool, but I later realised that there are two ways of doing that. I will tell you the story of my two communication purchases, and you decide which one you prefer: a satphone or a Starlink dish. 

1.     The satphone

I got this early. I got the Iridium Go! Which is basically a satellite modem that you link with your smartphone – you just join its WiFi network. Firstly, these are expensive, starting at around $1,000 and you are paying about $280 per month for the unlimited data and calls option. But when I got the SIM recently and started to set it up, it was a nightmare. The signal constantly drops out, the WiFi connection drops out, and while you can make calls on it, you can’t do ANYTHING else. I found out that the connection speed is so slow (slower than dial up, at around 2kbps) that you can’t send an email with more than 3 words in it in less than a minute, you can’t view the web (or at least not any sites that contain images, as the satphone shop guy told me) and even text messages take forever to send. Basically, a satphone is used like a mobile phone from 1993 in that it can only make phone calls.

2.     The Starlink dish

So less than a week before leaving, I got the idea to get a Starlink dish from Elon Musk (SpaceX). This cost $600 for the gear, and is $180 per month, with no lock-in – just use it when you want. It arrived 3 days later and worked straight out of the box. Within a minute of placing the dish on the ground, I was able to use my smartphone as a smartphone, even with Michele and I simultaneous streaming videos from YouTube without any problems. The connection speed is 500-200Mbps, basically around 100,000 times faster than the satphone, and there is full coverage for all of Australia. And yes, you can make calls as per usual over the internet (e.g. WhatsApp, FaceTime). It needs 240V power, but only draws around 100W so I just use an inverter connected to my 2^nd battery.

 

We will keep the satphone (as I am locked into two months, but we downgraded to the $99/month plan as we will never use it) and it has advantages as it runs off a battery and is portable, so it is essential emergency gear for hikers. But when we are in remote areas with the car, we will be using the Starlink dish to upload blogposts, check emails and phone the family. So if you are car camping or caravanning around Australia, get a Starlink dish and ditch the satphone.