stevengale33@hotmail.com (Steven Gale) wrote in message news:<c1711f05.0307040253.7423864f@posting.google. com>...
> Hi Riz,
>
>
>
> I bought a Thuraya satphone from a place called UK based company
> called MaviSat (www.mavisat.com).
>
> I found it to be quite a useful thing because you can also use it as a
> GPS tool to track your position which came in quite handy when I last
> went camping. It cost about £600 quid (with the VAT) but I did abit of
> research beforehand and other places were charging about £800 plus.
> Call charges were not that expensive (about 50p to 60p per minute) and
> are actually cheaper than GSM roaming in most cases but I reckon
> that's because Thuraya is the cheapest network to be on. The only down
> point with it is it does not have global coverage but the UK is in its
> coverage footprint. If you do need more coverage I think they do the
> other networks as well. Their website is pretty comprehensive so you
> should be able to find out what you need from there.
>
> steve

I was also going to suggest Thuraya. The handsets are expensive. I
have only seen them in the gadget shops at the bottom of Tottenham
Court Rd. The last time I looked they wanted £800. You can usually
bargain quite a bit but I did not want to waste their time since I was
not serious enough to spend anywhere near that much. It is good to
hear that they can be found for £600. If they drop a bit further, I
may give in.

As you did, I found the PAYG rates quite good. They compared very
favourably to roaming rates on GSM phones. Of course, a local SIM
would usually beat it but they are not always easy to get and even
when they are, you may need to make a call before you are able to get
one.

I did not check the inbound call rates. Do you know? What does it
cost to call a Thuraya phone from BT? What, if anything, does the
Thuraya user pay for the incoming call?

Apart from the price, the main reason that I have not gone for Thuraya
yet is that the coverage does not go far enough East. I travel in the
Far East a lot and would only be interested if that region was
covered. I believe that Thuraya are considering expanding and
launching another satellite. If so, I may give in.

I know that other satellite companies do cover the Far East but their
rates seem much less attractive.

J