Marine satellite phones and marine satellite phone service.

Marine satellite phones and marine phone service is very much different than marine cell phone service. Marine cell phone service is restricted to the use of your cell phone because cell phone service towers are land based.

Even with a good antenna and amplifier package, your cell phone most likely will not work once you get out on the ocean more than 50 miles from land!

This is why most ocean going vessels use satellite phone service. It is just not possible or practical to try to put cell phone towers everywhere!

Marine going vessels are just that, marine. Meaning they spend most of their time out on the water more than 50 miles from shore and satellite phones are the only method of communication once you are that far from shore.

In the previous section titled Marine Cell Phone we talked about cell phones and usage out at sea and why you should not rely on them as your only source of communication. The same goes for satellite phones here too.

Although you should take your phone if you have one whether it be satellite or cell, you should never count on that as your only form of communication while out at sea.

If you get into trouble and need emergency services, a VHF marine radio is your best bet because everyone out on the water will have one of those if they have any brains and everyone with one can come to your aid.

A satellite phone or mobile phone is going to be useful too, but only the person on the other end can hear you and that limits help getting to you in time.

A satellite phone will be most useful for surfing the internet and making calls while out at sea that are not emergency related.

There is more on the use of satellite phones in the satellite phone service section. I'll include a link here to take you directly to it. Click here to go from the marine satellite phones section to the satellite phone service section.