Iridium Next close to completion...

[Alberg30Shill]

Anyone know about bandwidth capabilities of the Next satellites?

https://www.space.com/40149-spacex-r...h-success.html

[CarstenWL]

... "will provide L-band data speeds of up to 128 kbit/s to mobile terminals, up to 1.5 Mbit/s to Iridium Pilot marine terminals, and high-speed Ka band service of up to 8 Mbit/s to fixed/transportable terminals."

Here is an old PDF:
http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/sat_comm_AST13.pdf

Regards,

Carsten

[TheOffice]

Now we need new hardware to take advantage of the new birds.

[CarstenWL]

Now we need new hardware to take advantage of the new birds.

... and take a breath when they announce the prices for subscription ;-)

Carsten

[BigAl.NZ]

Originally Posted by CarstenWL

... and take a breath when they announce the prices for subscription ;-)

Carsten

The information I got was that you will get better speeds out of Iridium Go with a firmware upgrade. Not sure how much better.......

And yes, my bet is that the higher speeds will come at a premium.

[TheOffice]

I was told by a vendor that the Go speeds will not change, but the units will work with the new satellites. Not buying new gear until this sorts out.

[4kMike]

I quess Iridium Co is planning the new product range and pricing.
It is great that they still support old user hardware versions. (with reduced bandwidth)

Next: more speed, more money..?

https://www.iridium.com/blog/2019/02...m-next-review/

"A few days ago, we completed the transition of 100 percent of our services to the new satellites."

[svmobert]

I am an Iridium dealer.

The 700kbps marine terminals are already available/shipping. Hardware and data costs are a nit higher than the Iridium Pilot, presumably because its newer and faster than the Pilot.

Iridium Go may seem faster due to higher signal quality, more reliability overall, but actual rated/supported speed is the same 2.4kbps as before.

Small Iridium Go terminals with higher speeds (like 80-100kbps) are at least another year out.

Iridium is highly focused on the fast maritime and vehicle terminals to compete with Inmarsat and other networks.

All prior Iridium devices they have made in the past still work on the new satellites, but no feature/performance enhancements.

Hope that helps..

[Brian.D]

Iridium, the satellite system that should have never existed.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Sea-TechSystems

I am an Iridium dealer.

The 700kbps marine terminals are already available/shipping. Hardware and data costs are a nit higher than the Iridium Pilot, presumably because its newer and faster than the Pilot.

Iridium Go may seem faster due to higher signal quality, more reliability overall, but actual rated/supported speed is the same 2.4kbps as before.

Small Iridium Go terminals with higher speeds (like 80-100kbps) are at least another year out.

Iridium is highly focused on the fast maritime and vehicle terminals to compete with Inmarsat and other networks.

All prior Iridium devices they have made in the past still work on the new satellites, but no feature/performance enhancements.

Hope that helps..

What are some typical Iridium Next monthly data rates at the 700kbps speed?

[svmobert]

Originally Posted by Paul L

What are some typical Iridium Next monthly data rates at the 700kbps speed?

Main thing to keep in mind, competitively vs KVH, Inmarsat, etc is that Iridium is 1.) The only satellite network that covers 100% of the earth, 2.) doesn't require moving satellite dishes, it's all solid state, 3.) low earth orbit means lower latency in voice and data, and 4.) doesn't suffer from congestion in busy areas like Panama canal, etc (where KVH and Inmarsat do have those issues.) So Iridium is treating this as a premium service.

Another thing to consider.. If you used a Certus terminal for the same exact data as you used an Iridium Go! for.. Email and Weather, you'd use less than 10MB per month. I have an Iridium Pilot, (132kbps speed) and I get my PredictWind and emails in seconds compared to minutes for an Iridium Go!, but because I use PW and Xgate email just like I would on an Iridium Go! I consume less than 10MB/month and pay less than the Iridium Go $134/month plan. And if I ever need to browse the web, go to a bank website, etc... I can, I just need to be aware of the added cost of doing that, something I have tracked and documented so I know that going to Gmail costs X$, going to Wells Fargo.com costs Y$, uploading a photo to FB costs Z$, placing an order to my inventory system costs B$....

As for the monthly costs for Certus data at 700kbps speeds..

Minimum cost, no data included, to keep the system alive will be about $130/month..

50MB/month included, $380/month

100MB/month included, $670/month

250MB/month (doubled to 500MB for free), $980/month

1GB/month (doubled to 2GB for free), $1440/month

5GB/month, $1780/month

10GB/month, $2580/month

There is also a VSAT backup plan for those with a KVH or similar that need the Iridium as a backup for then the KVH is out of area,etc. That rate is very low in comparison (matching KVH's normal data cost) but only available when used with VSAT.

I highly recommend a data management firewall (either onboard or as an add-on service) to manage the data usage, control what apps can connect via satellite, and how. Things like allowing Whatsapp/Facebook Messenger for chat but blocking attachments, voice/video calling, etc

[Neziak]

Can you recommend an onboard data management firewall (hardware) that can be set to allow WhatsApp text but block WhatsApp photos, videos and calling? I have the basic Redport optimiser and it doesn't have these options.

This would be useful even for 3G/4G in high data cost areas.

[svmobert]

Originally Posted by Neziak

Can you recommend an onboard data management firewall (hardware) that can be set to allow WhatsApp text but block WhatsApp photos, videos and calling? I have the basic Redport optimiser and it doesn't have these options.

This would be useful even for 3G/4G in high data cost areas.

Redport offers a version of the Optimizer that can do it.. But it requires a subscription plan and is remotely managed. It does a number of other things as well, and the subscription includes the Xgate email account. The router has an xgate email server built-in so it can do the send/receive to Xgate on a schedule and you can use Outlook or webmail onboard to read/write emails.

Figure about $350 for the "CrewComm" router, which has this feature built-in. There is a more advanced version of the CrewComm router that also has a built in LTE Cellular modem, just add a SIM Card and it will do WiFi, Cell, and Satellite..

Otherwise, we would use a cloud firewall service with the satellite (Iridium, Inmarsat, etc) but that only affects the satellite connection, not your wifi/cellular.

If you want more specific recommendations we would need to chat about your specific setup and needs.

[N3VR L8]

Also, just to clarify, the terminals available now are capable of 700kbps but that speed is not available as of today. Terminals are shipping with speeds up to 352kbps (been a bit higher in my testing), and will later require a firmware update to achieve the 700kbps speeds.

[svmobert]

Originally Posted by N3VR L8

Also, just to clarify, the terminals available now are capable of 700kbps but that speed is not available as of today. Terminals are shipping with speeds up to 352kbps (been a bit higher in my testing), and will later require a firmware update to achieve the 700kbps speeds.

I assume you have the Sailor 4300? My understanding, but it's not 100% clear, is that the Thales VesseLink is already 700kbps. The firmware upgrade definitely applies to the Cobham Sailor 4300 though.

Incidentally, the Thales VesseLink also supports tracking and has double the upload speed compared with the Sailor 4300.