R290, I Bought It

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

For some reason, I'm not impressed by the combination of cellular and satellite in a single handset. It didn't go over well in the original Iridium phones. I don't think anyone is going to lug a ~1kg handset around town when he can just pop the SIM into a GSM phone the size of a snuff box.

Don't exaggerate! Eg. Thuraya Huges 7101 with GSM 900 weighs 220 grams. Adding another GSM bands will "cost" a few grams more in the worst case . Some smartphones and palmphones have similar weight and people buy and carry them.

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

For my part, I'd be happy if Iridium just reopened GSM roaming for those of us who own a handset but have little need to keep an account active. At the same time I understand how Iridium would see no advantage in doing this, since many people who do keep accounts just for emergencies would drop them and fall back to roaming.

oster_oops: I forgot that now Iridium has no roamings (except for Orange Israel AFAIK) so combining it with GSM any other system in a single handset really makes no sense.