I am quite sure that many of us are familiar with the existence of satellite phones, which are touted to be able to offer you a signal regardless of where you are in the world. The thing is, most of the time in the movies, satellite phones do not function as they should – they either have no reception in the greatest time of need, or it runs out of juice. Well, this is not a fictional setting as Globalstar, a satellite company, has offered its Sat-Fi device that lets you set up a Wi-Fi hotspot wherever you are.
Taking a step forward from existing cellular network-based wireless hotspots, this particular attempt does have its price to pay – you will have to make a sacrifice of mobility and a speedy connection. After all, without a dish antenna, it is not going to be of much use.
The Globalstar Sat-Fi device has a list price of $999, where it would be portable but comes without a dish, where the box-shaped device measures 16cm x 16cm x 6.1cm, as it delivers data rates of a paltry 9.6 Kbps, in addition to supporting SIP voice calling and SMS texting via soft clients. Wi-Fi support is limited to 802.11 b/g/n at a 100 feet range at best, and depending on the band, is able to support up to 8 connected users simultaneously.
You are also required to purchase some talktime, where that would translate to either a monthly or yearly service. It will cost you $50 to activate a basic 40 minute plan alone, and on top of that, another $40 each month is required. Additional voice/data would cost you $0.99/minute, so it might be better to go with unlimited minutes at $150 each month. This is definitely not going to help you continue your iTunes downloads in a remote area, but it ought to be enough to send that tweet out. [Press Release]
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