Description
Take personal communications further
Iridium GO!™ is unlike anything the world has seen before. Powered by the world’s furthest reaching network, this compact, rugged and portable unit dramatically extends the capabilities of any smartphone or tablet by creating a satellite-backed hotspot – anywhere on the planet.
Transform your smartphone
Iridium GO! instantly transforms your trusted device into a global communications powerhouse. For corporate climbers and weekend warriors, individuals, enterprises or governments, for anyone who is on the move, out of range or off the grid – by land or at sea – Iridium GO! enables reliable voice and data capabilities for your smartphone or up to 5 mobile devices.
Simply flip up the integrated antenna and the battery-powered unit connects quickly and automatically to the Iridium LEO satellite constellation to create an anywhere hotspot within approximately a 30.5-meter (100 foot) radius.
Iridium GO! supports a full range of global communications, including:
- Voice calls
- Email access
- Applications
- Twitter posting
- SMS two-way
- GPS tracking
- SOS alert
Iridium GO! is small enough to fit in your pocket and — like other Iridium devices — tough enough to withstand rain, sand, dust and rough use. It can easily be:
- Carried or stowed in your backpack, or
- Mounted in vehicles, aircraft and boats for mobile applications
Combining the best that both satellite and cellular phones offer, Iridium GO! is the first in a whole new category of personal satellite connectivity devices. It is also a powerful development platform optimized for Iridium partners to build applications.
Compatible with Apple® and Android™ operating systems and supported by affordable plans that keep voice and data costs reasonable, Iridium GO!:
- Leverages and extends your existing trusted devices,
- Allows connections to be shared among multiple users, and
- Eliminates roaming charges
Internet Connectivity – Expectations
At an advertised 2.5 Kilobits per second (1 Kbps realistically), the Iridium GO! is not a solution to those looking for workable connection for normal Internet use (for a working Internet connectivity, we recommend a portable BGAN terminal) . For optimal speeds and avoiding disconnections, the GO terminal must be under a very wide open sky. Since the connection is slow, Email attachments of any size will take many minutes or possibly hours to transfer, and there does appear to be a size limit for the Email program. A single standard sized web page (with images) on average takes about 10 minutes to load, however the Opera Mini web browser does reduce image size by about 90%. With images turned off, the page load time when the network is working is about 1 minute. We do recommend bookmarking web pages that are mobile optimized.
A connection to the Internet using the Iridium GO (also known as data minutes) are limited to authorized smartphone and tablet apps, so your existing apps on your device will unfortunately not work over the GO. Right now the current Iridium GO apps are 1. Iridium GO App, 2. Mail & Web App, 3. Opera Mini browser (for iOS), 4. XWeb browser (for Android)… Recently Iridium introduced these 3rd party Apps for the Iridium GO. The Web portion of the Mail and Web app will automatically open a browsing session either with Opera Mini with iPhone/iPad, or XWeb with Android. All apps are free on the iPhone/iPad App Store or the Google Play store.
Our conclusion is that Internet access with the Iridium GO should be for those who are very patient, preferably with images turned off. Having more than one connected device trying to use the Internet would create an even worse bottleneck (it allows up to 5 connected devices). The good news for the Iridium GO is that applications like Instant messaging, GPS Tracking, Email and under 50K Email attachments (using the Mail & Web App), are pretty good. Let’s not forget it’s also capable of making/receiving a voice call from anywhere the sky can be seen.
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When loading a web page, the one most important trick we learned (besides turning images off), is to make sure that the green progress bar appears in the Opera Mini web browser. If the green bar does not appear, then the web page is not loading. This bar was an accurate tool showing the relative time of a page download, and was quite useful. The spinning progress icon at the top of the browser did not actually represent a download was in progress, and we ignored it.
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Iridium GO! Facts
Phone Facts
?A unique Iridium satellite phone number is used for your iPhone or Android smartphone.
?An existing cellphone number will NOT work when out of cellular range, unless you use this service.
?You can add to your Iridium satellite phone number a local number with this service.
?The GO can not make a phone call AND be on the Internet at the same time –
?Talk time is 7 hours, and 16 hours of standby time using one fully charged battery.
Instant Messaging Facts
?SMS Instant messages take on average about 20 seconds to be sent or received by the GO or recipient.
?Instant messaging uses the Iridium GO satellite phone number for sending/receiving all texts.
?An instant message may be sent to any phone number or email address.
?An inbound text will appear on all connected devices to the GO.
?Outbound texts from any one device will also appear on all devices connected to the GO.
?iMessage and other texting Apps (that are not Iridium Go) will not work over the Iridium Data network.
Email Facts
?Email on the GO is through the Iridium mail server using a new @myiridium.net email address.
?Each device connected to the GO may have its own email address. Register at iridium.com/mailandweb
?Existing SMTP email accounts with other providers cannot be accessed by the GO with Go Data Minutes.
?Gmail and other webmail sites can be accessed and used via Opera or Xweb browsers.
?Access to the @myiridium.net is only via the GO device. There is no web access webmail portal.
?Files may be sent as an attachment, or by using the “PHOTOS” button in the Mail and Web App.
?Files may be received by email (to @myiridium.net) and require clicking on the “Big Mail” folder.
Web Browsing – Internet Facts
?Web browsing uses the Opera Mini browser or the XWeb browser.
?User complaints have been very high with Internet abilities of the GO.
?Laptops and computers are unable to connect to the Internet over the Iridium GO data connection.
?Existing Apps on a smartphone will not connect or work over the Iridium GO data network.
?Internet Access is only accessed through Iridium GO Apps shown above and 3rd party apps.
?Internet speeds are limited to 2.4-2.8 Kbps (uncompressed) and 24 Kbps compressed.
?Historically, actual Internet speeds average about 1 Kilobit per second.
?In ideal conditions, a 100Kilobyte .jpg image will take 5.3 minutes to transfer on a 2.5 Kbps connection.
?A 1 Megabyte compressed file will take 55 minutes to transfer at 2.5 Kbps…again, in ideal conditions.
?To protect from abusive bandwidth users on the network, Iridium has created a Fair Use Policy
?Operational time is 7 hours, and 16 hours of standby time using one fully charged battery.
?Internet connectivity is extremely slow, and testing of the GOs web abilities requires a lot of patience.
Other Iridium Go Facts
?Wi-Fi Range of the GO is 100′ or 30.5 meters. Work inside while GO is outside (Wi-Fi does penetrate walls).
?There is no pointing necessary. Just flip up the GO! antenna (which also turns on the device).
?Startup time from powering on the Iridium GO! is about one minute.
?Up to 5 smartphones/tablets may connect to the Iridium GO! All may have their own email account.
?The GO supports iOS 6.1 or newer for iPhone or iPad and OS 2.3 or newer for Android devices.
