![]() A geofence 12 miles from the coast originally precluded use offshore, but following its removal users could get broadband internet on ocean passages.īoth Satlink’s standard and flat high performance antennae need a clear view of the sky Starlink appears to be a no-brainer for many and in the two and a half years since launch has been fitted to a growing number of yachts and fishing vessels. ![]() However, the Flat High Performance antenna is the only one approved for in-motion use and costs £2,400. At the time of writing, for UK customers the hardware with a standard antenna costs only £460 plus £75 per month for airtime, with the new Roam service priced at £95 monthly. The Iridium GO! exec’s data prices and bandwidth are still a long way from those offered by Elon Musk’s Starlink service, which provides full broadband data speeds of up to 50-250Mbps (thanks to using thousands of low orbiting, low latency satellites). Still, monthly and annual plans are at a lower price than most sat comms, with a 50Mb monthly package that would suffice for basic weather forecasting and text only comms, including email plus occasional voice calls, priced at US$160 per month – less than half the current price of equivalent Iridium Certus plans. Sadly, but perhaps not surprisingly, this offer isn’t carried forward to the new device. Of course, you can’t eat much data at only 2.4kpbs, but the knowledge you’ll never run out at sea, or get saddled with an unexpectedly big bill, is hugely reassuring. The Iridium GO! exec also adds a touchscreen, microphone and speaker, allowing voice calls without needing to pair to a phone Like the original it can also be used as a wifi hub to connect phones, tablets or laptops to the Iridium network. This allows voice calls to be made and received without pairing the unit to a smartphone – potentially useful if you have to take it to the liferaft. It’s borne of a similar ethos, but with data speeds 40x higher and the addition of a microphone, loudspeaker and touchscreen. The new Iridium GO! exec, launched this spring, will be sold alongside the original device. The original Iridium GO!, which launched almost a decade ago, quickly became the most popular device for long distance passagemaking, partly as the result of an unlimited data plan, even though downloads are at a snail’s pace. There’s now a wider choice and vastly improved data speeds, driven by new generation satellites and a growing number of market players, including big brands such as Apple, Amazon and of course Elon Musk/SpaceX’s rapidly expanding Starlink service.Īt the same time there’s still space in the market for low cost existing devices that provide mostly text-based comms and a data connection to allow weather GRIBs and GMDSS weather forecasts to be downloaded. Until recently, developments in satellite communications were painfully slow, but the pace of change started to quicken a few years ago and is today accelerating rapidly.
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