Customer Reviews

Globalstar GSP-1700 Hand Held Satellite Phone Silver Color

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First of all, the GSP-1700 is one of the most affordable satellite phones on the market. Manufactured by Qualcomm, it has a full fledged address book, location service, and ability to receive SMS messages and short e-mails. The service is only $20 a month for unlimited calling from North America to North America, and prices are what you would expect when in or calling to other countries. The overall size of this phone is fairly compact and doesn't weigh much more than say an iPhone 4. It's definitely much smaller than the older GSP-1600 phone and lighter, too.

It supports a data connection via USB through an optional (but sadly, proprietary) USB cable. Data rates are acceptable, and the data service is included in the $20/month plan. Overall, the accessories are a bit expensive as with Iridium and Thuraya products, but I'm happy to support Globalstar.

So, the catch to a cheap phone and unbelievably cheap service? Globalstar's first generation satellites have begun to fail and Globalstar is around half way complete in launching the second generation system. For most people in North America, this means a typical call time is about an average of 15 minutes, with the maximum being 45 minutes (or sometimes longer in some cases) before the call is dropped. Once the launches are complete, the service will return to the same great reliability they were known for in the late nineties. As my dealer put it, Globalstar is looking to become "the WalMart of satellite communications." Service area is most of the world with the exception of southern Africa and the poles.

Service quality, when connected, is amazing. There is no detectable lag or delay as Globalstar uses a bent pipe system, in that what gets sent to the satellite gets routed to a ground station without going through additional satellites. The call quality is compressed minimally, and to me sounds far better than a cell phone and just as good as most landlines!

I highly reccomend investing in both a GSP-1700 now (they come in three colors!) and a 1-year service contract. I suspect that the price will remain at or around $20, but wouldn't be surprised as the reliability increases that the price will too. So grab a year of service now and lock in this amazing deal. This is a priceless and valuable tool to have if you travel out of the range of cell service. In the case of a natural disaster, this will continue to function beautifully even after cell phone towers are jammed, destroyed, or turned off such as in the case of Hurricane Katrina.