A Big Change

Recently, Iridium announced a change in their long-time policy of grace period for expired vouchers on prepaid SIM cards. In the past, once a prepaid voucher's expiration date was reached, the SIM card itself began a 90-day countdown to deactivation. During the grace period, a SIM could be loaded with a new prepaid voucher without any penalty. Once the 90-day grace period elapsed, the SIM moved to deactivated status and thus would incur a $250 fee upon reactivation.

For most prepaid customers, this would mean being issued a new SIM card along with a new phone number. While that was not necessarily a difficult process, it still required the logistics and cost of having a new SIM card shipped. With the extension of the grace period from 90-days to 270 days, this allows some new options for customers to make their service a little easier.

New Options

Customers who use their satellite phone for travel one or two times per year can reduce cost and streamline the reactivation process by purchasing a 75 minute/1-month voucher, using the device for their trip, then letting the minutes expire. As long as their next voucher purchase is within 270 days of the previous voucher's expiration, the SIM can be reloaded without incurring any additional fees. As a bonus, no new SIM card would need to be shipped. This process can be continued indefinitely as long as the SIM is loaded within that grace period each time.

Prepaid versus Postpaid

There are a lot of different reasons to choose prepaid versus monthly or postpaid service. Some of those reasons include

• Full control over cost - no surprise usage bills each month
• You pay for the minutes you use - no activation or monthly charges
• Cost is upfront - pay for a bank of minutes that are good for an amount of time you choose
• Choose smaller denomination vouchers now and reload at your convenience rather than keeping monthly service active for months when not in use

Outfitter Satellite offers several different options for prepaid vouchers from global to cost-saving regional vouchers. All of the prepaid SIMS can now take advantage of 270-day grace period after voucher expiry. This is just another way customers can enjoy flexibility in using their satellite phone service.

#NoCellService