Perhaps you first saw it here, at PC Magazine’s website:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2416920,00.asp
Or maybe you were actually scanning Thuraya’s own website. (“How do you know if you’re a real rugged cross-cultural worker?” You regularly scan satphone websites, right? Just kidding.)
http://www.thuraya.com/products/voice/thuraya-satsleeve
Either way, it’s coming — if you have an iPhone 4 or 4S. Take a look at the Thuraya page. It’s basically a satellite adaptor for an iPhone. Download the brochure, get the factsheet, and start dreaming. Once it’s launched, it should provide your iPhone with virtually uninterrupted coverage throughout Europe, Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and Australia. It’ll probably set you back $500 or so, with the average outgoing voice call running $1.25 per minute. Many feel that incoming text messages will be free. Those with an iPhone 5 will have to wait for the wi-fi version, which will run upwards of $700. Of course, those of us who believe in a CASE for our iPhone will have to struggle to get our unit in and out of the case before sleeving up. hassle. :-) But if you’re hiking that five-day trip out to the foothills of the Himalayas to visit that outlying tribe in Arunachal Pradesh, this would be worth its weight in gold. No cell towers out there. :-)
(Keith, thanks for taking time to submit this item from the Balkans!)
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