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Peter.Basilides - 10/23/2020

I opted now for the Cobham SAILOR 4300 Iridium Certus. Fair price, (from Bluesat.com ) and Iridium seems to have better priced bundles for low volume operation. I've heard around the end of 2020 a new set of options will be offered (pre vs. post paid) 
I have been advised that for commercial vessel registration some sort of interface is still missing but in the works, to be pushed on the market February 2021. Then Iridium would offer the SOLAS capability/equivalency where to this date a Inmarsat C is required. Although I don't expect the rates for data transmission will go down at either company. 
Currently the big boxes sit in my home. I'll try to get the parts into suitcases...mounting them in November. Corona makes all planes uncertain, but as of today I still can fly to Spain to the boat.

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Peter.Basilides - 10/26/2020

You are right, a handset is an optional extra. For shipboard use, any DECT cordless phone will suffice. For abandoning ship a Iridium handset would be needed. I'll see if my old one will still work in that setup. Thing is, I want to keep my options open to run charters on occasion. For that I need to be SOLAS compliant, which requires a totally different/more sophisticated and more expensive set of comms equipment. It's a pain in the neck atm, because all the paperwork is also more intricate and time consuming, but I hope it'll be worth in the end to have the extra flexibility.