Hi folks,

I'm at the point where, besides Kevlar canoes, the only gear that I rent for our annual canoe trips is a satellite phone. Right now, I'm paying about $125 for two weeks of rental with 30 prepaid minutes.

We're going to be doing backcountry trips for many, many years to come and I figure if I can buy a used phone and prepaid minutes (a la carte), I'll break even after no more than three years.

Do any of you own sat phones and buy prepaid minutes? I don't know if buying prepaid sat phone minutes is a different process than a regular cell phone. Do you just walk into a phone store and just give them the phone number and buy prepaid minutes or would I need some type of package?

I do have one. My package is for 200 minutes a year. I'm sorry but I do not know what the yearly cost is right at the moment.

That being said, I have had years when I didn't use 10 minutes worth. I bought mine for emergency use and, thank God, have never had to use it for any life threatening situation.

For me, the peace of mind is worth whatever the cost. Whatever company you buy the phone from will sell you the minutes. You deal with them directly. I chose Iridium. I think it comes out that it costs about 6 bucks per minute.

Like Walllee, I have an Iridium. I use Satellite Phones Direct (SPDirect.com) for minutes, but there are other providers out there. I normally buy their cheapest plan (5 minutes/month), with the idea that I won't use the phone except in an emergency. They offer a number of monthly plans that may be better suited for you.
AdamX

You may also want to consider the Garmin InReach communication device. It's not a phone, but it does use the Iridium satellite system, has the SoS features and it functions really good as a texting device for communicating with family back home. It also has GPS and tracking features. I think my wife appreciated it more than I did as she could watch us moving on her Ipad. She literally could see us walking the portages and traveling the lakes. Since she tends to worry about us, this really helped ease her mind that we were doing ok. You can leave it on all day if you think you might be receiving a message from home. Battery life is very good, using up only about 1% an hour. I also brought along a power charger like you use for your cellphone and I could easily have had it on all day for at least a month. They have different monthly plans depending on how much you want. For the situation that we needed, I paid $60 for our trip which included unlimited tracking and 40 text messages, and it also includes 3 messages which you can set and send an unlimited amount of times. I was extremely happy with it.

Thanks for the great suggestions and advice. Will have to weigh and see which makes the most sense to me as I like the idea of a phone, but the Garmin makes a lot of sense.

quote huntfun2: "You may also want to consider the Garmin InReach communication device. It's not a phone, but it does use the Iridium satellite system, has the SoS features and it functions really good as a texting device for communicating with family back home. It also has GPS and tracking features. I think my wife appreciated it more than I did as she could watch us moving on her Ipad. She literally could see us walking the portages and traveling the lakes. Since she tends to worry about us, this really helped ease her mind that we were doing ok. You can leave it on all day if you think you might be receiving a message from home. Battery life is very good, using up only about 1% an hour. I also brought along a power charger like you use for your cellphone and I could easily have had it on all day for at least a month. They have different monthly plans depending on how much you want. For the situation that we needed, I paid $60 for our trip which included unlimited tracking and 40 text messages, and it also includes 3 messages which you can set and send an unlimited amount of times. I was extremely happy with it. "

Did you rent the unit and from who? $60 per month...subscription rate? Annual fee applicable too? Thanks.
Mac

quote MacCamper: "

quote huntfun2: "You may also want to consider the Garmin InReach communication device. It's not a phone, but it does use the Iridium satellite system, has the SoS features and it functions really good as a texting device for communicating with family back home. It also has GPS and tracking features. I think my wife appreciated it more than I did as she could watch us moving on her Ipad. She literally could see us walking the portages and traveling the lakes. Since she tends to worry about us, this really helped ease her mind that we were doing ok. You can leave it on all day if you think you might be receiving a message from home. Battery life is very good, using up only about 1% an hour. I also brought along a power charger like you use for your cellphone and I could easily have had it on all day for at least a month. They have different monthly plans depending on how much you want. For the situation that we needed, I paid $60 for our trip which included unlimited tracking and 40 text messages, and it also includes 3 messages which you can set and send an unlimited amount of times. I was extremely happy with it. "

Did you rent the unit and from who? $60 per month...subscription rate? Annual fee applicable too? Thanks.
Mac"

I bought the unit for $400 at Cabelas, you can also buy it on Amazon. Compared to renting a Sat phone I think I'll recoup the cost in three years. The annual subscription fee is $25 and I signed up for the Freedom Plan which was another $35/mo. You can then suspend your monthly service without incurring the monthly fee until you need it again. Learn more - https://explore.garmin.com/en-US/inreach/

I have an InReach, and it serves its purpose well. I like that you are not tied into a yearly subscription; rather, you select different monthly plans. I use mine in June, July and August.