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Comment by fudged71 | Hacker News Reader

The RockBLOCK is even compatible with Raspberry Pi! https://www.rock7mobile.com/products-rockblock

That is very cool... I remember walking into an Iridium store back in the day trying to think of way to justify a purchase of one of the phones to tinker with (I couldn't come up with a rationale). Can't think of a pressing need for a RockBLOCK either, but it's a neat device.

Nice to see that the iridium fiasco has resulted in some long tail utility

edit: here's a page with a proof of concept with an arduino hookup: http://makezine.com/projects/make-37/iridiumsatellite/

The Iridium GO! device is a pretty cool Wi-Fi hotspot that works anywhere outside in the world.

$1.26 - $3.77 per thousand characters... wow.

I think it'd be cheaper to build your own acoustic modem and glue it to a handset.

Undoubtedly. But a handset will only operate where a cell signal is available; Iridium will operate anywhere on the planet, so long as you have line-of-sight to the sky.

I think he meant iridium handset but I could be wrong.

He did mean that, but it wouldn't help - voice calls are very expensive on Iridium.

Last I checked (~2 years back) it was 7$ / minute.

Well if you are stranded half way across The Sahara, I think you'd fork out $7

For data you can get an unlimited plan (includes SMS) for $150/mo.

Did your comment end up on the wrong thread?

It did not. The product is an Iridium transceiver, and a great conversation starter for this topic.

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