Satellite Phone Forum

[A.Schiller]

How do people call my Iridium phone?

Thanks,
Alen

[admin]

How do people call my Iridium phone?

For staff, family, and friends to call you: remember that calling an Iridium phone is just like placing an international long distance call. There is no charge to the Iridium phone to receive calls. But see the Caution note below!

From the U.S., callers should dial:

011-8816 + (your Iridium mobile number).

From the United Kingdom, callers should dial:

00-8816 + (your Iridium mobile number).

The international direct dial access code for the USA/North America is 011; throughout most of Europe (and much of South America) it is 00. If in doubt, inquire locally.

Caution – expensive calls: be aware that your long distance carrier may charge you a one-time fee of $10 and up to dial Iridium from your phone, and that per-minute rates can also be as high as $5 per minute. For this reason, we recommend calling the Iridium only when it is urgent. Remember, the call will go through only if the user has the Iridium phone turned on and can hear it.

It is not yet possible to reach an Iridium phone from all regular switched telephone networks, since all long distance carriers cannot support these calls. Iridium is working with telecom operators to make it possible to reach an Iridium phone from a growing number of regular telephone networks.

Paging

If an Iridium phone is switched on and within reach of a satellite, you have various alternatives to reach it. If a caller can't reach you because your phone is busy or switched off, Iridium Global Page Service automatically prompts the caller to leave a voice mail or numeric message. Your pager notifies you that a message has arrived.

SMS text messaging

An alternative to calling the Iridium phone is to send a page or use the Short Messaging Service, or SMS.

SMS inbound: SMS text messages can be sent to an Iridium phone using email, cell phones, Blackberrys and other handheld devices, or from http://www.iridium.com. The recipient (user of the Iridiium satphone) will be charged the standard data rates for SMS for receiving the message. Typical costs are approximately 45 - 60 cents per incoming text message.
- By email: for the address, use (12-digit Iridium phone/or pager-number) @msg.iridium.com. Place the text message (maximum 120 characters) in the body of the E-mail.
- From a cell phone, Blackberry, etc.: Use subscriber's 12-digit Iridium MSISDN phone number, 8816xxxxxxxx, and then write a text message (max. 120 characters). The sender will be charged the data rates for their particular service, and the Iridium user will be charged the standard data rate for SMS messages.
- Over the Web: Go to http://www.iridium.com, select Support, and then "Send a satellite message" to send an SMS message of up to 160 characters to any Iridium phone or pager. There is no cost to the sender, but the Iridium user (recipient) will be charged the standard data rate for SMS messages. The Iridium user cannot reply to text messages sent from http://www.iridium.com.

It is less costly to send an SMS text message to the Iridium user, asking that he or she call you back, than to call the Iridium number. Voice calls are charged to the Iridium user at approximately $1.20 - $2.00 per minute. If the Iridium satphone or pager is logged on to the satellite network, the message is normally received within 15 minutes.

SMS outbound (9505a and 9555): You can send "outbound" SMS text messages from the 9505a and 9555 models. Outbound SMS is not dependent on the SIM card. The satphone just needs to have the latest firmware and the Service Center Number typed in. You should be able to do outbound SMS with any SIM card. Please check with your service provider for the cost of outbound SMS messages.

Please remember that it is always less costly to make a call FROM an Iridium phone than to place a call TO an Iridium phone. The least costly way to call to an Iridium phone is to place the call from another Iridium phone (known as mobile-to-mobile service).

Two-Stage Dialing (the most cost-effective way to place calls from the U.S. to an Iridium phone). If your staff and others need to make frequent voice calls to your Iridium, please contact your service provider about a service that establishes a special long distance number in Arizona, where the Iridium “gateway” is located. Thus callers will be charged only for a long distance call to Arizona. This gets around the high costs of calling your Iridium phone directly. Here are the details, as provided by Telenor Customer Care:

Two-Stage Dialing Platform (PSTN originated dialing) was developed to give PSTN callers the ability to cost effectively call an Iridium mobile terminals. The PSTN caller can call an Iridium switch in Arizona USA number that connects them to the Iridium terminal through the Two-Stage Dialing platform located in the Tempe Gateway.

** Note: Default -- All Telenor customers can automatically receive calls using Two-stage dialing, unless they sign up for restricting these calls using the "Two-Stage Dialing Restrict Form".

How to Dial an Iridium Phone with Two-Stage Dialing:

The PSTN caller dials the Iridium switch in Arizona (+1.480.768.2500)

They will then get prompted to enter the Iridium mobile terminal phone number (e.g.: 8816 xxxx xxxx).

**Note: the caller should just enter the phone number starting with 8816, without any prefixes such as "00"

The switch then connects them to the Iridium terminal through the Two-Stage Dialing platform.

2-stage Dialing Billing:

The PSTN caller pays for the long distance rate to the Arizona USA gateway. The Iridium mobile terminal account is then billed for the call from Arizona to the Iridium Mobile terminal

**Note: Iridium currently does not accommodate calling-party-pays arrangements, nor can a PSTN caller pay by credit card.

How to Restrict or Block Two-Stage Calls:

If the mobile party wants to prevent unwanted calls / charges from Two-Stage Dialing callers, they must fill out and send the "Two-Stage Dialing Restrict Form" to Telenor. There are two ways of restricting calls:

a) Implement a PIN code system and only distribute the PIN # to wanted callers.
b) Block the Iridium phone # from receiving any PSTN originated 2-stage dialing calls

I hope this helps.

========== Klaus