Hi,

Due to a small snafu and large grief from wife I am not the proud owner
of a used Iridium phone. "OK,OK, I will never, ever sail away for
7-days without calling in. I promise, Honey, I promise!"

So, now I need to subscribe for a service. I will only need the service
intermittently. When sailing (Newfoundland and Nova Scotia), when at my
cabin in Pennsylvania, and when diving on an atoll in Belize.

Most months I will not use the service. When my wife is with me she
will use it to stay in touch with her office. (My purpose of goings is
to avoid my office.) I'm guessing we will use fewer than 100 minutes
per year.

In general I am looking at about $40/month service fee plus $1.50 or so
connection fee. Global Marine appears to be the best at $35/month and
$1.29/min. The connection fee is OK but the monthly is a killer.

Is this typical or is there some provider that can do better?

Many thanks,

Howard