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A comment on Show HN: I built a Iridium/LTE satellite GPS tracker and took it to the Arctic. Parent comment

Re:Show HN: I built a Iridium/LTE satellite GPS tracker and ... by lxgr on Monday October 07, 2024 @03:17PM (#41769866)
$50/month, these days, if I'm not mistaken. (You can only use it abroad for two months at a time, but you can update your location as as far as I'm aware, and it's $/€ 50 in most places.)

Price wise, it's no comparison, but the two don't directly compete yet – power usage and antenna size of Iridium and Starlink are orders of magnitude apart (largely due to the L-band spectrum available to Iridium globally).

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Re:Show HN: I built a Iridium/LTE satellite GPS tracker and ... by matrix2003 on Monday October 07, 2024 @06:34PM (#41771831)
The higher rate gets you oceanic use, which is a big benefit of iridium.

You are correct that it can be $50, but AFAIK that’s a different plan that is land or near-land only.

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Re:Show HN: I built a Iridium/LTE satellite GPS tracker and ... by lxgr on Monday October 07, 2024 @07:10PM (#41772096)
Ah yes, good point.

I believe the $50 plan used to have a pay-per-GB option for offshore use – $2 or so per GB, compared to $5 and more per MB for the competitors. But even at 300 or so, it’s orders of magnitude better for high-bandwidth use cases.

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