Thuraya OutThere competition
Be one of the first 20 people to submit a photo and win $100
To celebrate that you can now recharge instantly wherever you use your Thuraya satellite phone, we want to see and read where you have used yours.
Got a great picture (preferrably with your Thuraya mobile)? Or a story about how your Thuraya saved the day? Well, send it into us here at
We'll show them here and if yours is judged the best out of the first 20 valid submissions received, you will receive $100 cash.
Competition Entries
Heike Sperner & Thomas Laemmle, Reaching Renjo-La
Thomas Laemmle: Reaching Renjo-La (Solu Khumbu-Nepal) and getting in touch with grandma who is taking care of our 2 year old son Michel, back home in Germany. In the backround one can see Mt Everest.
Lawrence Billson, Search and Rescue over the Indian Ocean
Lawrence Billson: When the call came to do an air search for survivors from a boat sunk in the middle of the Indian ocean; after my 'go' bag, the next thing I grabbed on my way to the airport was my Thuraya phone. Being able to call home, the rescue coordination centre and check a weather report over the Internet from 43000 feet above the Indian ocean was amazingly reassuring.
Eva Baranyi, Cho Oyu Tibetan Route, Camp 2, 7130m
Eva Baranyi: Being able to get in touch with family and friends is really heart-warming. In 2008 I was on an expedition to the Tien Shan Mountains, Kazakstan. For a whole month there was no communication at all between my family and me. When I got home, my father immediately bought a Thuraya phone, and since that, I'm not allowed to get out of the country without it :) Last year in 2009 autumn, I went on another expedition to Cho Oyu in the Himalayas for six weeks (where this photo was taken), but in this case with this Thuraya phone. It really was a big difference!
TA Loeffler, Mt Kilimanjaro Summit
Here's a picture of me using my Thuraya phone on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. As the group was taking individual shots in front of the sign, I was calling in an update to my website. It was an incredible moment since everyone of our group of 12 women aged 42-60 made it to the top after six months of training and preparation together. You can hear at call at www.myeverest.com/summit-day. That's me in the orange parka with the phone in hand. Marian Wissink and Abigail Steel posing in front of the sign.
Ralph Arbeid, Palau, Micronesia
Ralph Arbeid: Using my Thuraya phone to keep in contact whilst diving in Palau, Micronesia. We were on a liveaboard out in the Pacific doing shark diving.
Pavel Blazek, Kargyak, Northern India
Pavel Blazek: We have been using a Thuraya phone since the beginning of our project in 2005 to build the Sun school in Kargyak. It takes four days to get to the nearest city from the village of Kargyak where we are building the school, so the Thuraya phone is our only way to stay in touch with civilization. We are using the phone almost daily to communicate with people in India, with the base team in the Czech Republic and also we are using it as a modem to send the updates and pictures to our website suryaschool.org.
Mark Van De Velden, Wahiba sand dunes in Oman
Mark Van De Velden: Wahiba challenge 2007, a fantastic driving event organized each year across the Wahiba Sand Dunes in Oman, ME. Over 25 teams of 4x4 vehicles and 1 team of trial bikers took the two day challenge to drive 100 km across the sand dunes, take my word for it not easy at all ! Joanne (wife) and I were part of the motor bikers support team when the call came that one of the bikers had burnt his clutch and needed to be rescued. Bob our team lead with two 4x4's navigated the dune faces and safely transported the biker and his trial bike back to mid camp. Meanwhile Bob kept us in the picture using the satellite phone what was essential as they arrived back late at night. The dark brings a whole other set of challenges and it was important to know that the guys were on their way. The picture highlights the enormity of the Wahiba sand dunes in Oman. Mark Van De Velden
Mihaly Aba-Mark, Hunting in Krygyzstan
Mihaly Aba-Mark: I was last year in Krygyzstan for a hunting trip, near Peak Khan Tengri, and Peak Victory using freqently my thuraya phone to be informed from home about my family and the satelite weather conditions :-) It is verry nice that we can recharge our phone's in the field now! Mihaly Aba-Mark
Claudio Rosset, Everest Base Camp, Tibet
Claudio Rosset: At Everest base camp in Tibet in 2005, charging our two Thuraya phones with solar panels. Photo Claudio Rosset. I was helping Bruno Brunod from Italy attempt a speed accent of Everest. Unfortunantly Bruno couldn't make the top due to winds, but I was lucky enough to get to the summit. The Thuraya phones were very helpful to coordinate the teams assisting Bruno on the mountain. Later they were also helpful when an expedition of some friends of ours on Annapurna had an accident and we could coordinate the rescue. Claudio Rosset
Roman Pekar, Afghanistan
Roman Pekar using his Thuraya phone to send a report into a Czech news website during his six month long expedition from the Pamir-Hindukus through Central Asia and Afghanistan. He said "our phone was the sixth member of the team:-)"
To give you some more ideas, here are some pictures of the FoneRecharge team & friends using their Thuraya satellite phones.
Fiona Adler, 8000m on Mt Everest at the South Col
Fiona Adler from FoneRecharge at 8000m on Everest's South Col. She is getting her Thuraya phone ready to update her website, a few hours before leaving for the summit.
Fiona Adler
I was a bundle of nerves in this photo. After more than 2 years of gut-wrenching training, and 2 months getting into position at camp 4 on Mt Everest, and I was about to find out whether the conditions would allow me to test my abilities and make a summit attempt. The wind was howling outside my tent and I was already exhausted from the climb up from camp 3 to this beautiful but desolate and frightening place.
Throughout the expedition, I used a PDA and a Thuraya satellite phone to upload a daily dispatch (with photos) describing what was going on to my friends, family and a growing group of supporters from around the world. The process of writing helped keep me centred and the incoming messages of support were always the highlight of my day. Keeping in touch was a top priority - and one that I think helped motivate me to eventually reach the summit early the next morning.
Fiona Adler
You can read what Fiona wrote in her dispatch from 8000m on Mt Everest here.
Alan Arnette, 7000m on Shishapangma in Tibet
Alan Arnette calls into his website with his Thuraya satellite phone at 7000m on Shishapangma in Tibet.
Alan Arnette
I was overwhelmed sitting at 7000 meters on Shisha Pangma. Off to my right were the flat Steps of Tibet, brown in color yet a clear turquoise lake provided a striking contrast. Directly ahead was our high camp. The bright yellow and orange tents sat softly in the pure white snow. And of course, the 14th highest mountain in world served as my windbreak. The summit standing proudly against the harsh winds.
I pulled my Thuraya phone out of my pack, dialed the number and within seconds, followers of my website shared in this special moment as I posted my audio dispatch. It is memory I have forever.
Alan Arnette.
You can hear Alan's audio dispatch sent in from Shishapangma here.
Paul Adler, Everest Base Camp in Nepal
Paul Adler from FoneRecharge uses his Thuraya satellite phone to do a radio interview from Everest base camp in Nepal.
Paul Adler
It was my second attempt of Mt. Everest and I was nearing the end of the expedition. A group of friends had trekked into base camp and I took them up a nearby mountain to get a better view. As we were heading back, the weather turned and it started to snow. The snow was getting worse and we were still a way from base camp, when suddenly I remembered that I had to do a radio interview. I took out my Thuraya phone from my pocket, turned it on and we all sat around and waited for them to call. Much to everyone's relief they did, but then promptly put me on hold for about 20 minutes. Finally I did the interview, and one the trekkers snapped this photo of me standing on a rocky mountain slope in the snow, doing an interview on a radio station half way round the world.
Paul Adler
You can listen to this interview from base camp at Mt Everest here.
Conditions:
The competition closes when 20 valid entries have been received. All entries will be posted on this page as soon as they are received. You may enter more than once, however entries that are very similar will not be accepted. Judging is performed by the FoneRecharge team, and employees and their immediate families are ineligible to enter.