Making Calls With Iridium Satellite Phones

All calls made from an Iridium satellite phone are considered ‘International’ calls. If you’ve never made one before, it can be a bit confusing. This tutorial will help you make your first call and show you how to call an Iridium phone from anywhere.

Every Iridium phone is assigned a 9-digit international telephone number along with a 3-digit country code. The country code for all Iridium phones is 881. Iridium phone numbers can be called from any phone on the planet. If you don’t know your Iridium phone number, please contact your Iridium service provider or Ground Control. Or you can just call any phone with caller ID, which will show the Iridium number.

Making a call from an Iridium phone

To make a call from an Iridium phone into the United States, dial the United States country code (001), then the area code, and then the phone number.

For calling a US phone number from an Iridium Phone – example number: 001 805 783 4600
In this example, 805 is an area code in the U.S.

For calling into another country:
Dial the country code then the full phone or fax number. To locate the country code that you’re calling into, please visit: https://www.itu.int/oth/T0202.aspx?parent=T0202

Making a call to an Iridium phone

To call an Iridium GO! phone from the United States, dial 011, then Iridium’s country code of 881, then the – digit Iridium phone number. Note that 881 is the country code for all Iridium phones.

Example 1 – Calling an Iridium phone from the US: 011 881 672520732

From outside the US, please use this tool to help you find the correct number sequence (detailed instructions follow below).

Example 2 – Calling an Iridium phone from Afghanistan: 00 881 672520732

Each country is different, but many countries do use 00 plus the country code. We also recommend using this tool to help you find the correct number sequence. If this doesn’t work, you can ask for assistance from an operator to help connect. You only need to know the 870 country code and the 9-digit Iridium phone number for the operator to connect you.

While the Iridium account will not be charged for any incoming calls placed to it, the calling party will pay for satellite Iridium phone rates. Charges vary widely between phone providers, from $1 to $10 U.S. per minute, and some phone providers block international calling. The calling party can ask their phone provider for their international plan rate to ‘Iridium’, which has its own country code of 881. Phone providers often have inexpensive international plans that can be added to avoid paying any exorbitant per-minute fees. Also consider adding a local number for the Iridium phone.

Making a call from an Iridium phone to an Iridium phone

To place calls between Iridium phones, you may need to dial 00, and then dial the 9-digit Iridium number.

Accessing Iridium Voicemail

Iridium voice mail be accessed by pressing on the voicemail icon or calling 662990000 from a Iridium phone or 011-881-662990000 from any other phone. When prompted, you’ll be asked for your Iridium phone number, as well as the voicemail pin number.

An Excellent Tool for All Iridium Calling

This handy website helps find the exact number sequence you need in order to place a call to or from a Iridium phone from anywhere in the world. Please use ‘Inmarsat’ as the country you’re calling to or from.

www.countrycallingcodes.com

On this web page, you may:
If you’re calling an Iridium phone:

• Under ‘Where are you calling from?’, select the country you’re calling from.
• Under ‘Where are you calling to?’, select ‘Inmarsat’.
• Click ‘Submit’.
• On the screen that appears, you should have the prefix numbers before the 870 Inmarsat international number and then the 9-digit Iridium number.

If you’re calling from an Iridium phone:

• Under ‘Where are you calling from?’, select ‘Inmarsat’.
• Under ‘Where are you calling to?’, select the country you are calling.
• Click ‘Submit’.
• On the screen that appears, choose the pull-down window labeled ‘City Info’ and choose SNAC (single network access code). That number and the 9-digit Iridium number should connect you. Make sure you replace the 870 country code with 881 for Iridium.