Review of the Apollo Satellite communication services
Introduction
As everyone involved in serious expeditions knows, reliable means of communication is one of the critical aspects of any exploratory project in the wilderness. This is particularly important during solo expeditions, something that I routinely venture on. When being on your own deep in the Arctic tundra or Subarctic taiga, hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest village, you really want to be able to call some means of rescue, if an accident happens.
While it’s – in principle – Iridium’s job to make sure the commucation actually takes place, you never actually contact Iridium if you want to pay for, or service, your phone. Instead, all the aspects of actually using the phone, such as payments, servicing, connectivity issues, etc., are being managed by satellite provider companies, such as Apollo Satellite.
Apollo Satellite is a provider offering all the aspects of satellite-based communications. While it specializes in “industrial operations in extreme enviroments, including deep-water energy exploration, remote mining and transoceanic shipping”, I decided to give them a try in the context of extreme expeditions to the high Arctic of Asia, one of the most remote and inaccessible regions of the world. It was a good decision: in summary, all the aspects of communication went flawlessly.
Reliability
First of all, Apollo is really dedicated to ensuring the highest level of services in terms of reliability. Unlike many other provider companies, they have a dedicated 24/7 hotline for any emergencies. They respond very quickly to your emails, and they even take the initiative in trying to predict any other potential issues that might happen during the expedition, and how to remedy them. I was impressed by the overall quality of service.
Anyone who has been using Iridium known, that it does have issues every now and then with its online free texting site. This is why I always triple check whether the texts actually reach my phone, before venturing out in the wild; this website enables my family and friends to easily send me a short message for free. Before the 2022 summer expedition to the Anabar plateau, the website was experiencing some issues. Apollo reacted swiftly to resolve the problem.
Affordable costs
Apollo offers a wide selection of affordable airtime plans, including both the phone and the Internet subscriptions. The offer is wide and can be tuned to specific regions, further reducing costs. Moreover, there are plenty of operators supported, varying from the global Iridium network to more region-specific operators such as Thuraya.
Rich selection of outdoor equipment
Apollo offers a lot of items in its outdoor department, which starts with the high-end products such as satellite phones or portable Internet, but also includes things like GPS trackers, survival kits, distress beacons, solar panels, and many others.
Large knowledge base
A unique part of Apollo’s website is a rich knowledge base, full of useful information covering the effective usage of satellite phones or Internet terminals, emergency services, region-specific remarks and hints, and many others. The full base ia available under this link.
Free online SMSes
Apollo very conveniently groups online SMS services to four important satellite phone operators: Iridium, Inmarsat, Thuraya, and Globalstar. I found it very useful to have all these scattered sites available under one specific location:
Rentals
For those who do not need satellite communication on a regular basis, or are simply unwilling to spend substantial amounts of money for this equipment, there are affordable and diversified rental options.
More information
More information is available under the Apollo Satellite website:
https://apollosat.com