Inmarsat IsatPhone 2 Handheld Satellite Phone

I have had 3 different iridium phones and this is my second Inmarsat phone. The big difference is sound quality and battery life. This phone will give you about a week of standby. It also receives and sends text messages. The sound quality in Inmarsat is so much better than iridium that if you care about that, you shouldn't think twice. Get this or the version 1 is this phone. Excellent construction. Beyond excellent sound quality.

I don't have a ton of experience with satellite phones, but I have used a few rented Globalstar's, so that is what I can compare this to. Whereas the Globalstar's may have gotten service 2 out of 5 times I tried (and probably took 10 minutes on average of shifting the phone around to track down a satellite), this Inmarsat phone got great service 100% of the time, with zero dropped calls over a 3 week period. There is a very slight delay in voice transmission, but other than that, it is like using a traditional cell phone. From power up to dialing a call, it is seconds. Very, very impressed with this phone.

I was flabbergasted at the very poor instructions for activating the IMMARSAT SIM card. The directions for activating the phone were poorly written. I had to make numerous calls to get the correct company (located in the UK and GlobalSat, not Immarsat) to submit a SIM card number to activate the phone. In fact, I am still waiting for activation after receiving the phone several days ago. This has been a tedious process and an arduously unnecessary exercise. I was so frustrated that I wanted to return the IMMARSAT satellite phone to Amazon Prime.

It worked as advertised; instructions provided for dialing not clear however a prompt response to my email concerns and questions were properly answered. To dial press 00, then Country Code, and then the 10 digit phone number. I did use the telephone during my trip and to stay in touch in an area were no cell phones work. Great product excellent battery life in standby mode (about 60 hours). Excellent price when comparing this phone to similar phones. I believe this phone package comes with 100 prepaid units however I bought 100 additional units; well worth. Additional units can be bought within the seller website. Customer service is reliable as they promptly reply to emails within a reasonable amount of time.

i was a bit skeptical at first when i read a lot of bad reviews about this phone, like bad battery etc. but from my point of view, the phone is perfect for my needs, it holds on one charge around one week in stand by mode, the voices are clear and im getting enough service in southern part of alaska, also the activation was pretty smooth in minutes, who does not have money for iridium as me, this is the choice

Ive had this phone for almost a year now. Phone was shipped from BlueCosmo and activation was straightforward online. It does take about 24 hours to activate (probably faster to call BC direct). The phone itself has been very reliable, Ive not had a dropped call after using in various locations across the US. Ive also not had any battery issues; the phone does drains minimally when stored for long periods in "off" mode (drops to approx 3/4 power over 4-month period). The phone has absolutely no problems connecting to satellites when outdoors. Indoors, it will sometimes connect if near a window (which is to be expected). Text messages and emails send and recieve reliably. I should mention that you can receive texts notifications when the antenna is down, however, you sometimes still have wait up to 15 minutes for the text to download (once the antenna is raised). Also, there is a weird quirk about incoming messages. Messages that have an "@" symbol in them will be cutoff after it appears. this results in an incomplete message that contain an @ character in it. Inmarsat prepay service plan is pretty economical. They do expire in 6 months but the units will roll over as long as you purchase another 6 month package before the first one expires. It costs about $200 a year to maintain, but you cant let the plan expire. Would recommend this phone for anyone who travels frequently outside of alaska and the poles. i like the modern look of the phone but would prefer if it were one inch shorter.

Great phone, well built and rugged. Good battery life and great voice quality. Blue Cosmo is a great company to get service through. A+ customer service. I have read a few reviews around about battery problems, well all I can say is that those people are ignorant... it's called a firmware update... The phone is great. The battery is great. I'm getting 5 to 7 days with minimal use.

I received 2 copies of this phone with a hairline crack in the base supporting the antenna. This was reported as a defect in the manufacturing of this phone. http://spacenews.com/inmarsat-finds-manufacturing-defect-in-isatphone-2-satellite-handsets/ I was hoping to get a fixed version of this phone in November, as I read it was reported to be resolved end of October. Unfortunately this appears not to be the case with the replacement that I received. I will be returning both my Inmarsat phones. Update 27/11/2015 After returning the 2 phones to Amazon, I ordered direct from a vendor (BlueCosmo). The phone appears to no longer have the hairline crack described. Firmware for the phone also appears to be updated to the latest (1.8.01). I will be travelling to Canada in December and will further test the phone. So far no problems with texting, or making calls.