Globalstar bet, & the South Atlantic Anomaly
A Panbo reader (thanks, Jon!) points out that Globalstar now has a enticing four year contract featuring unlimited airtime “for calls placed from the Home Service Area of the US, Canada or Caribbean,” including long distance in North America, and free “Express Data Compression”. Of course the rub is the degrading amplifier issue discussed here in February. Globalstar’s contract page is pretty frank about possible “significant gaps in satellite availability” before they get their new satellites up (and you get the deal’s cherry-on-top, great unlimited service for 19.99/month). But a reasonable-sounding Wikipedia entry goes a bit further, suggesting a possible “total loss of service in 2008.” That’s also where I learned about the South Atlantic Anomaly, a dimple in the van Allen radiation belt that may have toasted those amps.
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I used globalstar on a cruise to the Bahamas last month.
Although the service was intermittent, I found it to be quite usable. I sometimes had to wait 10 to 20 minutes for a signal, then I would get a few minutes of usable service - enough for a quick phone call or sending/receiving email.
I found XGate's email client worked very well. It connects quickly, and I was able to send and receive emails with attachments of around 50k without any problems. I was able to keep my blog up to date (including photos), and I received GRIB files via email from saildocs.com.
While I would not recommend it for longer phone calls, or for extended web browsing, but I would say it works fine for email. You just need a little patience.