It worked well on this end. Bounced the satellite and updated the website every 8-12 minutes on average.

I'd recommend not turning it on at your house though next time. LOL

Mine was $150, and I got the tracking option/service for $100 with $50 off coupon that expired 12/31/10.

I didn't, I turned it on at the high school. It is close to my house, but not my house.

Ah ok! It just looked to be in a neighborhood. Good then!

I need to get the service on mine pretty soon.

does it have settings on how often it sends an update?

and which version did you go with the older model or newer? what's the differences?

I'll eventually have one... though coverage outside US/Canada and Europe degrades a lot from what I've seen... Africa is next to nil.

How often do you ride to Africa?

No, it just does 10min tracking. Or you can send updates as you please with mine.

I have the newer version, mainly cause I got it as a gift. I believe mine has a few more buttons, like the custom tracking message. You go into the settings on the website and can send messages to who you want by email or text message. You can write in what they will receive too.

You will probably want the high end tracking units for overseas stuff. They have a steep up front cost, but they aren't service oriented, so you will make up the difference in cost over a couple years. I am sure there will be something better by the time you do that trip though.

Well I'm planning on eventually riding around the world. and Africa and South America are the area's I'd be most worried about something happening, and being off the beaten path where I'd need to send an SOS for someone to find me.

I'm not saying it's a concern for everyone or even most people... but in my case it will be.

Their coverage map says that India and the South Eastern part of Africa are the no coverage zones... but from the ride reports I've read, most of Africa you have little success sending out a message regularly.

I bought a mount already. I am going to mount it next to my Zumo. I will just take both off together and stow them in the tail case where I can lock them up.

Ahh ok... I'd love to have one right now, but I'm not planning any big trips anytime soon (Hopes for the TLH trip in Fall are dimming) so it'd be pointless...

yeah, and shit 11 years at least they may have true global coverage. I'm holding out hope that by then, satellite phones will be affordable.