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Forum Question Posted By: Replies:
Antarctica
Communication with the world ... or am I entering twilight zone?
Posted: Mon January 5, 2004 01:58 PM UTC
"Calling" all those who have been to Antarctica or live in Antarctica... Does cellphone work in Antarctica? Triband (GSM 800, 1800 & 1900) or something else? Or nothing works? or depending on autoroam service agreement?

My cruise ship has telephone connection but they charge something like US$12 a minute!

Have anyone tried using their mobile from States or U.S.?

Thanks!
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[Reply]

Antarctica
Re: Re: Communication with the world ... or am I entering twilight zone?
Posted: Mon January 5, 2004 03:45 PM UTC
Sharrie,

email is on the way!

Cellphones do not work in Antarctica - it is just like Barnard said! So you will be far away from civilization - and that is a fantastic feeling as well!

Enjoy your trip!

Christine

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Antarctica
Re: Re: Communication with the world ... or am I entering twilight zone?
Posted: Tue January 6, 2004 03:24 AM UTC
Thank you both :-)
I figured that as much... satellite it shall be!
I'll be very broke after this trip :-(

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Antarctica
Re: Communication with the world ... or am I entering twilight zone?
Posted: Thu March 18, 2004 10:56 AM UTC
Nay, cell phones don't work in Antarctica. However, the American scientists that work in Antarctica use satellite phones to make calls from field camps. They also have a few at the South Pole. The ones they use are Iridium phones (once a commercial venture that is now mostly owned by the US military; I don't know if they are still commercially available). For $5000 a phone and $5 a minute to make a call, you, too, can call someone to say hi from Antarctica (and you wonder why the company went into bankruptcy). I don't know about you, but there's no one I want to talk to that bad.

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 AntarcticFox [Reply]
Antarctica
Re: Re: Communication with the world ... or am I entering twilight zone?
Posted: Fri March 19, 2004 10:19 AM UTC
Thanks! I did use the satellite phone from the ship but it doesn't work when we arrived in Antarctica! Works only on Drake Passage!

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Antarctica
Re: Re: Communication with the world ... or am I entering twilight zone?
Posted: Fri March 19, 2004 10:43 AM UTC
Yeah, I wasn't very fond of the Iridium phone I used at Palmer. The signal would drop out every eight minutes as the satellites move on in their orbits. The company wasn't very fond of our phone use, either. They sent it down to us to test it for use in field camps for the upcoming summer. The only problem was that they made a typo when they sent the e-mail telling us how many minutes were in the plan. The e-mail said 2000 when the plan was actually for 200. Understandably, the people back home were quite pissed when they got the bill for a few thousand bucks for one month. LOL!

-Fox

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 AntarcticFox [Reply]
Antarctica
Re: Re: Communication with the world ... or am I entering twilight zone?
Posted: Fri March 19, 2004 10:47 AM UTC
It wasn't too bad. I called Asia & it's about US$3-5 a min. depending on the time of the day.
Luckily for me it didn't work while in Antarctica. I spent only US$50. It'd have been a lot more!

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Antarctica
RE: Communication with the world ... or am I entering twilight zone?
Posted: Tue September 5, 2006 08:50 AM UTC
Cell phones require cell phone towers. How many of them do you think there might be in Antarctica?

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 donaldsc [Reply]
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