![\"Image\"](\"\/images\/stories\/dashew\/coveragemap_nolegend_gusa.jpg\" "\\"Image\\"")
<\/div>\nAbove is a coverage map from the Globalstar website. Orange is called primary reception, yellow “extended” and blue “fringe.” What we know from our own experience last summer is that we had intermittent connection service in Southeast Alaska and offshore in the Pacific Northwest, where the map shows “primary” reception.<\/p>\n
When we decided to activate one of our sat phones in Alaska last summer we checked with the local fishermen. Globalstar has a poor reputation so we were going to use Iridium. However, we were informed that Globalstar has added a new ground station and that they would now have good coverage, so we signed up with them. The reality is that the Globalstar system performed so poorly for us in Alaska that we stopped using it. We heard later that they were having intermittent problems affecting their system, and this may have contributed to our lack of performance.<\/p>\n
Bottom line, be sure and talk with folks who have real world experience with these systems where you are planning to go before deciding.<\/p>\n
For data and phone service with Globalstar if you are outside of your primary coverage area and your signal goes through a different country’s ground station, you pay roaming charges, which are substantially higher than the domestic plan per minute costs. With Iridium, the per minute charges are the same anywhere the phone is used.<\/p>\n
Both of these phones provide data transmission and reception, albeit at slow rates. The Iridium is good for 2400 baud, the Globalstar three to three and a half times this rate.<\/p>\n
Both systems have a variety of payment plans. Iridium seems to settle a little above one US Dollar per minute. Globalstar offers plans down to a quarter of this – but again, make sure you know the service works reliably in the area where you are planning to use it.<\/p>\n