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Searching for a Satellite Pager?
mcolgin asks: "I need a satellite pager! Why? I own a dot-com and as the only technical person responsible for the 7 servers needed to run the site and it's automated delivery systems, I've got to find out about any problems, before my customers/suppliers do; no matter where I am, especially when I'm: camping in Eastern-Washington; back-country skiing in Whistler; or driving down to Oregon for Mother's Day. I've tried every type of cellphone and pager I can find, but nothing gets a message to me once I get out of populated areas and away from freeways. So, I started looking into Satellite pagers; but I swear, I can't find anything in the local Seattle, WA area and only a couple listings online from Google searches. This has got to be a problem that the Slashdot community has run into, before. Any suggestions?"
Iridium who does satellite phones also does global pagers. The pagers are not too expensive about 150.00 dollars US, but the service is about 127 dollars a month for unlimited pages or you can get the basic plan that i think is around 56 dollars it gives you about 150 pages per month. If your stuff doesn't go down that much i'd get the basic plan. A place that I know that sells it is InfoSat YOur other option is have your cell phone text messaged. I usually never not have service. If I do it's not for very long, and when i get back into a populated area or get reception i get my messages right away. The point is, what if you get a page but you can't call anyone because you have no reception. That would fustrate me more.
The reason you only got "a couple listings" is because Iridium is pretty much the only game in town, and there's pretty much only one pager. There weren't exactly a lot of devices made for this market. It's no small feat to operate a global voice/data satellite network. There are only a "couple" of other providers (geared more toward government, military, and enterprise, and without "pager" offerings): InMarSat and GlobalStar, for example.
The Motorola 9501 for Iridium is, as I said, essentially the only satellite pager:
http://www.iridium.com/product/iri_product-detail. asp?productid=445
http://shop.infosat.com/pagers/
http://www.infosat.com/services/iridium/motorola_9 501_pager.htm
http://www.satwest.com/satellite_pagers_mi9501.htm l
More...
Of course, you may be interested in a satellite handset, not strictly a "pager", than can also get email and numeric messages. Keep in mind, though, that all of these satellite devices are subject to normal satellite requirements, e.g., line of sight to the sky. Yes, sometimes they'll "kind of" work in vehicles, wooded areas, etc., and you will get confirmed delivery of messages once you're again in range, but these things aren't exactly set up to work in houses and buildings. You may have no choice but to have a conventional cell phone/pager AND a satellite device for when you're remote, and have your automated systems and/or people try both devices.
For others in a similar boat, but not quite as remote as the submitter, you may also consider a conventional 2-way or 1.5-way nationwide pager, which provides delivery confirmation and re-attempts if you're temporarily out of range. But if you know you're going to be out of range for a while, you pretty much restricted to something like one of the satellite solutions. Consider a mobile phone. Most providers' digital networks offer email service, numeric "paging", and even true TAP/IXO paging. Just look into a provider that covers your area(s).
A bit of history on Iridium: Iridium was the satellite phone service launched by Motorola on Sept 23, 1998, when the last satellite of its global constellation was in place. Handset prices (over $3000) and airtime fees (several dollars per minute), as well as attempting to market to ordinary folks doomed the service from the beginning. Motorola decided to end the Iridium service on March 17, 2000, at 11:59pm. After billions were spent on the 66 satellites, and the $1 million per month that it cost Motorola for Boeing operate the satellites, Motorola initiated plans to deorbit and destroy the constellation. Various investor groups attempted to save Iridium, and the Defense Department even provided $72 million to keep the satellites operational (in the face of concerns of debris from the deorbited satellites actually hitting someone on earth, which NASA pinned at 1 in 250). In any event, Iridium Satellite LLC successfully purchased the assets of the $7 billion Motorola Iridium program in November 2000 for a mere $25 million:
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0011/16iridium/
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/29iridium/
The new Iridium, launched in March 2001, attempts to fix the shortcomings of the original by expanding beyond satellite voice telephone service, into data, video, realtime monitoring, and special applications in markets such as mining, oil/gas, m
OK, so it took me all of three minutes to find what you are looking for.
First, I googled Satellite Pager and found out that Motorola used to make a pager called the 9501 for well known satellite phone company Iridium. Next, I checked a few of the first links. I found that the Motorola 9501 has been discontinued but originally retailed for $149.95. I also found that the service had a $100 activation fee and was $69 a month, and Iridium still offers it. Ahah! Theres something! So then I clicked on the seventh link down and found out that a company called World COmmunications Center sells refurbished ones for $195. You can buy the pager from them and activate it with Iridium's service. There's a link that says How to Buy on the WCC page that lists their phone numbers, including one in Portland, OR. Close enough for Seattle for ya?
Now I could probably find more, but I have to be back at work in 20 minutes and don't really feel like more googling. So enjoy, I hope this works for you.
Ask Slashdot: For When You're Just Too LazyTM
And oh yeah...FP!
Hire a sysadmin, you lazy rich bastard (j/k:-)
Apparently you have enough time and money to camp, ski and travel while running a dotcom, so why not help the economy by hiring a skilled junior who will keep the servers healthy when you're away?
Their global 'coverage' is limited as displayed on the map on their site. For one, Africa is completely uncovered.. so if youre smack dab in the middle of central Africa, theres NO way to communicate back except maybe long range ham radio.
The polar regions are also barely covered; that was the reason I was looking for a pager in the first place.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
Interesting idea, but Amateur Radio is restricted to non-commercial use. "The Amateur Radio Service is a voluntary noncommercial communication service, used by qualified persons of any age who are interested in radio technique with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest" (FCC Website).
Look a little further about their "Level 2 Marketing services", at:
http://www.digitalcandle.com/marketing_info.html
Your product's marketing campaign includes:
[...]
* promotion of your product on the DigitalCandle web site and in our targeted, opt-in e-mail marketing programs.
In all fairness, a quick search through my spam archive (which is about a year of spam) doesn't yield any hits on "digitalcandle". And a search of news.admin.net-abuse.sightings yields only seven hits.
Brilliant solution, and an excellent example of the wide range and advanced nature of many Amateur technologies.
One problem....
He's running a business, and well that's not really amateur than is it? What you are proposing is actually illegal.
Please see part 97 of the FCC rules, specifically section 113, 'Prohibited transmissions'
FCC rules 97.113
-Mikey P
Are they replacing satellites that have reached EOL ?
Iridium currently has about a dozen spare satellites in orbit, in addition to the 66 operational spacecraft. While the earliest spacecraft have reached their originally-estimated EOL, the satellite constellation remains quite healthy, and company officials have indicated (based on independent studies) that the existing constellation should remain fully functional until around 2014. This gives the company plenty of time to plan launching replacement satellites, not to mention arranging financing (made easier by the fact that the company is now profitable and is free of the billions of debt the original Iridium rang up during the 1990s.)
If you're curious, Globalstar, Iridium's main satellite telephony rival, is in a similar situation: its constellation is in good shape, although with more on-orbit failures than Iridium. Globalstar has eight spare spacecraft on the ground they will likely launch in the next few years to supplement their existing constellation and keep it operating into the next decade.