Posted: 3/17/2007 6:55:49 PM EDT
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I was talking to some Marines that previously deployed and some of them said that we weren't allowed to bring personal SAT phones, but then I was reading the above thread "Lessons Learned from deployment--what works--Sustain/Improve", and SAT phones were mentioned a couple times. Are we allowed to bring them, or is there some prohibition? I'm not hell-bent on getting one, but I just wanted to clear up the whether or not we can. More like an item I would put on my "nice to have, but not a priority" list. |
| Don't know where you'll be, but local cell phones are pretty darn easy to get in-country. Especially if you can get one from one of the Joes you'd be relieving. Get the pre-paid kind and you can call back to the States for about 50cents a minute. Not great but better than the ATT call center. |
Get the GSM phone unlocked before you leave, buy a local companies SIM and you are in business. T-Mobile unlocks active phones for free, not sure about the other companies. It does take a few weeks to process your request so don't wait till the last minute. |
Exactly, cingular will also give you the subsidy unlock code for free. A cheap ass gsm phone over here is only about 20 bucks though so if you have a really nice $$ phone leave it at home and pick one up here. I'd hate to get my phone confiscated, but my unit if very permissive about personal cells, since our comm situation sucks so bad otherwise. |
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You can use any computer with internet access to call home too. Just go buy some minutes from Skype or a similar site, get yourself a headset (they're cheap) and you can call any phone via the internet. It's cheap and easy if you have access to the internet. Better yet buy a webcam and a headset and use yahoo or MS Messenger. Then you can see and hear the person that you're talking to. The service is FREE! I only used a land line phone to call home twice in the year I was deployed. I "called" home about once a week with the computer though. |
I have yet to see any military network that doesn't block every single VOIP website. 
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Not sure what "VOIP" is but I used the Internet Cafe's at several FOBs to webcam with my family. As far as the Skype goes I think that I only used that from my personal laptop on the system that my unit purchased and set up. (We set up our own dish and wireless network). |
not sure about actual VIOP.. but when my brother is in Iraq he will "call" home using yahoo messenger and a $10 webcam . he just left again and he plans on doing the same. |
Ah, so you were the guy who was causing all the lag and latency at the MWRnet?! I don't know about the locally run net cafes, but the MWRnet at our FOB banned the use of headsets for just that reason. Folks who wanted to check/send email weren't able to get any bandwidth because the Yahoo/MSN video message services are bandwidth hogs. We had Spaware (USAEUR) VoIP phones at our FOB for the people who wanted to talk to folks at home, the computers were for email and other internet use. GB Scout, 1/22IN, 4ID Ft Hood, TX From Iraq and Back in less than a year... |
+1 - I speak to the wife every morning that I can via Skype, except obviously when I am on mission. |
Just about every computer in the MWR centers that I was in was equipped with a webcam so that you could use Yahoo or Messenger to talk to your family. There was almost always several other soldiers in there doing the same thing and it was perfectly acceptable. That's what they were there for as far as I could tell. |