Inflation does not spare satellite telephone services, to believe that the price of radio waves increases with the cost of transport ! Does this mean that the cost of the round trip of a radio wave toward Iridium satellites (environ 2 x 780 km) is directly impacted by the increase in fuel prices ? Damned, I will have to be explained !
Anyway, the bad news has just reached us through our partner iTabNav.fr : Significant general increase in Iridium subscription prices on January 1 2023 affecting all resellers.
+ 20 %
This is overall the increase in the US pricing in dollars. And as the dollar is now, more or less, at parity with the euro it is easy to conclude. Here is the information sent by iTabNav to all its subscribers of an Iridium subscription, past, Ongoing or Upcoming :
We have just been informed of a significant increase in our Iridium feeder rates from January 1st 2023. This increase is General and will affect all distributors. These new prices will be applicable to all active subscriptions during the period, even if they were acquired in advance. Indeed, we are billed by Iridium for the periods actually used and not according to the date of purchase by our customers.
Therefore :
- if you have prepaid subscriptions that are intended to be activated even partially in 2023, You will have to pay a prorated surcharge for the period used in 2023. You are of course free to refuse this supplement and we will refund you the prepaid months on request.
- If you are currently on stand-by and had planned to reactivate your subscription on 2023, The same rule will apply depending on the reactivation date.
- If you have an auto-renewing subscription, The new rate will be applied from January 1 in proportion to the current month. A specific message will be sent to you for your consent.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused by this situation. We remain committed to providing you with the best possible service, with the most flexibility, at the best price. As mentioned above, this increase will affect all Iridium distributors.
This is very unfortunate for offshore sailors whose main use of satellite telephony is to request GRIB weather files and graphic weather maps, therefore the safety of their navigation !
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to believe that everything goes through Ukraine, by Total or by road.