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Satellite Communication
Many of the participating Iridium satellites had been shut down in 2000 ; the remaining ones still offer support for every point on earth besides Poland,North Korea and Cuba
(source: 'All Road Communications')
Internet access via additionally available Data Kit at a speed of 18 KBit/second.
SMS textmessage receipt free of charge ; sending costs about 50 cents per message
Last available prices in US-$ per minute (when Turkey had a nearly nationwide GSM + fixed phone system breakdown due to a major earthquake)
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satellite-bound Iridium calls could be obtained for $2.73 per minute inside Turkey (comparison: $2.10 p.m. for calls inside the countries of the European Community) |
calls from Turkey to other countries : $1.50 + the normal long distance fee |
Two of the reported successor systems:
The complete system (covering at least the European and Arabic region) with a ground station in Sharjah
(United Arabic Emirates) was built for 1.1 billion US-$ by
Hughes Network Systems and Boeing Satellite Systems
note: Some of the newer Thuraya phones support additionally downloaded Java(TM) applications.
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Internet access via additionally available Data Kit is possible at a speed of 2.6 KBit/second. SMS textmessage receipt is free of charge ; sending a textmessage from the handset costs about 50 cents per message | The purchase price for a handset is 585 Euro ($749). To rent e.g. a 'Qualcomm GSP 1600' costs 15.18 Euro ($19.49) per week ; connection fees are partly less than $1 p.m. |
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note: Satellite Phone communication that exceeds a certain profile usually leads to detection and confiscation of
the phone in some countries of the Middle East,
like Syria and Oman (source: 'All Road Communications')