Medusa

Getting Social With Your Satellite Phone

<p>For years&comma; satellite phones have been limited to making and receiving calls&period; For the hiker lost and injured in the woods&comma; a satellite phone is a lifeline to help&period; For the sea captain out on the ocean&comma; it’s a connection back to land&comma; and the dispatch center warning him about impending weather&period; For the journalist in a war-torn nation&comma; it’s a means of sharing new developments with the world at large&period; But in every situation&comma; communication is via a phone call and person-to-person conversation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That’s all changing&comma; though&period; In an era when all you need to do to access your social media profiles or connect with people all over the globe is tap a button on the screen on your smartphone&comma; a device that can only make phone calls might not hold the same appeal&period; Not to mention&comma; many people rely on social media to stay connected and share important news and information with others&period; It’s easier&comma; after all&comma; to send a quick tweet or update your Facebook status than it is to call everyone on your contact list&comma; or to rely on other people to share your news quickly and accurately&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;medusamagazine&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2013&sol;09&sol;satellite-phone-640x430&period;jpg" alt&equals;"satellite phone" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"430" class&equals;"aligncenter size-Correct-Size wp-image-7506" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Because so many people need to have access to their social media profiles&comma; even if they are in remote areas that aren’t served by traditional cellular service&comma; a number of satellite phone networks are developing ways for customers to access their profiles&comma; or at least send and receive messages via social media&period; While none are quite as simple as tapping on the icon for an application&comma; they represent a huge leap in the functionality and connectivity of satellite phones&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Share Your Status in 140 Characters or Less<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The microblogging service Twitter actually began as an SMS-messaging service back in 2006&comma; so it makes sense that the same messaging technology used back then is the means by which satellite phone users can access their feeds today&period; While you still can’t see the feeds of those you follow on your satellite phone&comma; you can easily send messages to your feed and receive responses via text message&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It works like this&colon; You must register your satellite phone with Twitter&comma; using the Twitter&period;com website&period; You’ll enter your sat phone number and confirm it through a series of text messages&period; Once your phone is confirmed&comma; you can send texts to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;40404&comma;” which will then post to your account to be seen by all of your followers&period; &lpar;If you are using a phone on the Thuraya network&comma; the number to text is &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;1888&comma;” while Inmarsat users should send texts to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;898&period;”&rpar; If you want to be able to receive replies&comma; simply visit the profile of the person who can reply&comma; choose to receive notifications of their tweets&comma; and you will receive a text message every time that person posts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are a few things to keep in mind when tweeting from a sat phone&period; One&comma; while the SMS text service allows messages of up to 160 characters&comma; Twitter only allows 140 characters per tweet&period; Any message over 140 characters will be cut off&period; You must count characters to ensure you send a complete message&period; Second&comma; because most satellite networks charge per message&comma; you’ll want to be careful about which tweets you subscribe to&semi; receiving a lot of text message could send your bill skyrocketing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Other Social Media Accounts<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Updating your Facebook status via satellite phone is a similar process&period; Log in to your Facebook account&comma; click on account settings and then the link for &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Mobile&period;” You’ll be prompted to enter your mobile phone number&comma; and then activate it for text messaging&period; Similar to Twitter&comma; you’ll need to confirm the number&comma; and after confirmation&comma; you can then update your Facebook status by texting the update to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;32665&period;”  Again&comma; you are limited to 160 characters&comma; but that will be enough to let family and friends know you are safe during an emergency or to update followers of your whereabouts when you’re exploring a remote part of the world&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As satellite phone technology improves&comma; it’s likely that in time we will see additional capabilities for social media connectivity in the future&period; Already&comma; satellite provider Thuraya is developing a case for the iPhone that turns the device into a satellite phone&semi; presumably&comma; users will be able to do almost everything that they are used to doing on their iPhones using a satellite network — including staying connected via social media&period; Until then&comma; by using a satellite phone’s text capabilities&comma; you have one more way to stay in touch beyond the traditional phone call&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>About the Author&colon; Georgia native Hobert Pruitt works with GlobalSatelliteCommunications&period;<wbr &sol;>com&comma; a leading satellite-phone provider&period; For all outdoor adventurists&comma; he recommends affordable satellite phone rentals from <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;globalsatellitecommunications&period;com&sol;rentals" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;<wbr &sol;>globalsatellitecommunications&period;<wbr &sol;>com&sol;rentals<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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