Iridium, the name that is a curse to those who want to get away from it all and do not want to remain connected to the world in any way, is back with support for Android-powered handsets, Blackberry smartphones and iOS devices including the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad. This basically means that all those devices are capable of hooking up to Iridium’s global satellite network over Wi-Fi. Granted, the final bill that you receive in the inbox is not going to be cheap, but at least it is a viable option in the event of an emergency when you need Internet in the remotest areas without any cellular connectivity in sight within a 10 mile radius.
Iridium will hook up its satellite network to smartphones through a new hotspot known as Axcess Point, where it will deliver Internet access – as long as it too, is connected to a Iridium 9555 or Extreme satellite phone which doubles up as a modem. It won’t cost more than $200 for the Axcess Point as that rolls out in the fourth quarter of this year, while you need to fork out another $1,000 thereabouts for the Iridium phone plus a voice/data package.
A little math is always great to work out how much you have to pay. Since Iridium provides a maximum bandwidth of 9.6kbps, a single MB would take around 14 minutes to download, burning a hole in your pocket to the tune of $9 to $18 in connection fees. Definitely not the way to go if you’re a heavy data user, but it beats sending smoke signals, no?
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