Sat phone rental
 

What is the best place to rent a sat. phone in Au.? Is iridium the best choice? I will also have a cell with me for any calls in the coverage area. Found a company in the US where I can rent one for 140.00 to 200.00 a month plus 1.75 a minute. I am riding solo and would like to take some fairly remote roads but safety is a factor. I will be there for 6 weeks. What is the lightest one available? Down to 3 weeks before I land. Getting pretty excited.
Thanks Al

I'm not organising the sat phones for our Aussie trip starting later this year, so this is the only information I have:

$464 per month rental. (This comes with a Cigarette Lighter adaptor for charging.)
That is the only cost, however, the cost of making calls are:

$1.99 per minute to any other Satellite phone in the world.
$3.99 per minute to any land line in the world.
$2.00 for a txt message to any phone in the world.

Prices will be in NZD and I don't know what company my mate contacted to get this info, except it is Aussie based.

I also know you can hire phones for the more isolated sections, eg you can hire a phone at Mt Dare and drop it off at Birdsville to do the Simpson crossing.