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RBGAN price drop: Poor man's Video at Everest
17:16 p.m. EST Feb 8, 2005
One of the biggest Sat phone events this winter was the huge prize drop on RBGAN. Video for the tight budget at last! But there were two small devils in cyber paradise: Defective RBGAN car chargers (12V chargers) and confusing call plans. But even with that, the deal is just too good to pass. We begin with the bad news and move swiftly to the good ones:
Bad news: Defect batches since last fall - check your gear
Inmarsat recently released information that since last fall, the batches of car chargers are defective and must not be used with the RBGAN. Many suppliers are unaware of this fact and still deliver from the bad batches. The new DC chargers are expected in a couple of weeks.
Now to the good news - pricing!
Inmarsat is aggressively pushing price-levels for the two year old RBGAN, high-speed data terminals. They are down from $1500 to $650 or lower.
Until recently, sending back expedition video from the Himalayas has been possible only for the top-funded and high-profiled, since costs are usually in the $10-40k range.
60 stories and 10 videos
The recent price drop makes it possible to pick up an RBGAN for $1000, including 40 MB of transfer. The 40 MB roughly equals 60 dispatches with image (CONTACT 3.0), 1000 e-mails and 10 videos like the one Scott Woolums made from Everest C3 during the hurricane in 2003 (find it on WebTV in the menu on MountEverest.net). The same transfer (40MB) would cost the expedition some $1500 from a Thuraya handset and $5000 from an Iridium!
Bring it high, shock your friends and impress your sponsors
At 1600 gr. (57 ounces), the RBGAN isn’t something you bring to the summit, but several expeditions have brought it to C2 at Everest South and ABC on North.
There’s nothing cooler than doing a Messenger pop up on your friend’s PC while at Everest. It gets cooler with 144 kb/s. Add a web cam (expect low resolution and 1 pic every other second or so) to your laptop – log up on messenger and your friends back home can chat live with you at C2.
OK, so we’re all grown-ups and not into chats, right? But doing a live chat with your sponsors while on the mountain has never been easier.
Voice over RBGAN
There are several ways to use VoIP (making phone calls) over RBGAN today. The easiest and cheapest to install and use is SKYPE. Check our story from Dec 13, 2004, “VoIP High – SKYPE over Satellite” (in the links section).
Make some money
The new RBGAN comes with a traffic counter function, making it easy to check how many MB is used during a specific session. Let your pals hook up and download mails at blazing speeds to their laptop or PDA. You’ll make an extra buck and it’s still a good deal for them.
The new lower RBGAN plans
Megabyte prices have dropped with the price of the hardware. Medium users can now get away with costs below $8 per MB, while heavy users can usually get it at a dollar less. Spend some time with the price list (links section).
Image of RBGAN ExWeb files.
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