A friend cruising in the Caribbean Tuttle called yesterday to warn me that certain Motorola 9500 Iridium phones are having a problem connecting to Ocens to download/upload e-mail. He suggested that I try my own 9500 and see if I could connect, and sure enough I experienced the same non-connect problem he's been getting: an error message. He tried more than 25 times, he said, and got an error message each time. I tried several times and also received an error message each time. I spoke with tech support at Ocens and learned that Iridum acknowledges the problem and is working to resolve it. Ocens said it apparently affects only Motorola 9500 units using prepaid minutes, indicating that Iridium did a switch software update/upload a few days ago and that's the smoking gun. They said that several of Ocens' customers including my Caribbean friend have reported experiencing the same problem. If you use a Motorola 9500 with prepaid minutes to upload/download e-mail or weather data from Ocens or GMN, I recommend trying to connect to confirm that you still have service. If you don't, notify Ocens or GMN so they can let you know when/if the problem is resolved. --Milt Baker, Nordhavn 47 Bluewater, Fort Lauderdale