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, la même règle s’appliquera en fonction de la date de réactivation.
- Si vous avez un abonnement avec renouvellement automatique, le nouveau tarif sera appliqué à partir du 1er janvier au prorata du mois en cours. Un message spécifique vous sera adressé en vue de votre accord.
Nous sommes sincèrement désolés de la gêne occasionnée par cette situation. Nous restons attachés à vous apporter le meilleur service possible, avec le plus de flexibilité, au meilleur prix. Comme évoqué plus haut, cette hausse concernera tous les distributeurs Iridium.
This is very unfortunate for offshore sailors whose main use of satellite telephony is to request GRIB weather files and graphic weather maps, donc la sécurité de leur navigation !
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à croire que tout passe par l’Ukraine, par Total ou par la route.