Data transmission from remote areas is indispensable for journalism, in research, for plant monitoring as well as remote maintenance of stationary or mobile plants and equipment and exploration of new raw material and energy deposits. The most important criteria here are data transmission rate, data volume per transmission, data volume per month.
Data volume in the MB/GB range
Data rate up to 700 kbps
Typical applications are internet access, transmission and streaming of images and movies. Fixed and mobile modems and terminals are available as land-based solutions and maritime solutions as equipment for permanent installation on board.
Mobile land terminals can also be upgraded for permanent fixed installation. Prepaid and postpaid contracts are available on land, while postpaid contracts are mostly offered at sea. The essential factor for the contract costs is the expected data volume during the contract term and the choice of the most suitable rate plan.
Satellite terminals, satellite modems
Use on land, mobile, on vehicles
Maritime satellite terminals
Data volume up to ~100 kbyte
Data rate 2.4 kbps to 60 kbps
In principle, data can also be transmitted via satellite phone. However, the service is subject to significant restrictions depending on the system. The following also applies: The specified data rates represent a maximum possible value under optimum conditions, which also includes the “overhead” for the transmission. Normally the telephone must be installed as a modem.
Thuraya phones offer 60 kbps in download and 15 kbps in upload. You can surf the Internet and check your emails with this, provided you limit the amount of data (no large attachments) and accept the reduced speed.
Iridium phones only offer 2.4 kbps (download/upload). Surfing the internet is not possible with this extremely small data rate. However, with special mail software, e.g. compressed weather data (GRIB-Files) can be requested and received.
Satellite phones
Some phone models can also be used as a modem
Data volume up to ~50 kByte per month
Data rate ~100 byte/s
Iridium offers with the SBD service (Short-Burst-Data) a good service for small amounts of data, as they typically occur at measuring stations or during device monitoring.
A data set can contain a maximum of 0.34 to 1.96 kBytes, depending on the satellite modem. There are tariff plans with a free volume between 0 and 30 kByte/month, the service is billed by byte and is available globally.
