Windows doesn’t show it as any device whatsoever, in Control Panel/ Devices.
According to Thuraya, win8 is not supported. Now this could just be a script monkey reply, so I investigated further.
Google turns up a driver but it turns out to be the usual scam which is an executable which scans your computer (or pretends to) and then finds loads of “problems” and offers to fix them… yeah right.
I downloaded a USB analyser from here (a known good company which makes USB chips) and this shows all devices I connect, via a hub perhaps, but for the phone it shows absolutely nothing. No device ID, no device name, nothing.
The Lenovo Tablet 2 beeps when the phone is connected or disconnected so it has seen “something” allright but that is the only indication of life.
The phone offers two configs for the USB port: “USB”, and “modem” and for the latter they offer a baud rate setting. Neither of these two does anything.
Presumably Thuraya are using some microcontroller with a USB Slave interface, but whose? It isn’t Prolific or FTDI who are the two main players in that business.
I have tried running the phone under a winXP VM but the Thuraya winXP software says the OS version is invalid and won’t install. I tried installing the win7 driver under a win7 compatibility mode and it installs but doesn’t do anything.
It’s not a massive deal because I can use the old Thuraya 7100 phone, which is a straight Hayes compatible modem over RS232 (via an FTDI USB to 232 adapter) and that works, but the data rate on the dial-up connection (dialing 1722) is 9.6kbits/sec ($1/minute) whereas the XT phone offers GPRS at 56kbits/sec ($5/MB). I got the Lenovo tablet (over Android or IOS devices) exactly to support (a) Oziexplorer and all the VFR map options which that gives you and (b) dial-up networking connections.
Win8 has bizzare problems with USB chips. For example the market leader in USB-serial chips – Prolific and its PL2303 – does not work under win8 and they say a win8 driver is impossible. They have modified the silicon and are selling a new version of the 2303 but that’s of little help to existing hardware… FTDI’s FT232 chip works on win8 but the Thuraya phone evidently doesn’t use that one. I don’t know why M$ screwed up so badly or so arrogantly. They must have known they will break loads of existing products.
Presumably Thuraya are using some microcontroller with a USB Slave interface, but whose?
I don’t know what hardware they use, but the firmware seems to be the standard Windows CE CDC ACM device driver.
I don’t know why M$ screwed up so badly or so arrogantly
Especially given that the other side is from them as well 
One Thuraya distributor is convinced they have a win8 driver because, he says, they list one on their website. I can’t see it there, but maybe he has other access. He is also surprised Thuraya told me they have no win8 support.
I decided to spend a rainy day on this…
This outfit has a product which may work but the free version runs for just 4hrs and then you have to reboot the computer to get another 4hrs.
They want €3000 for the paid version.
It appears to create a virtual COM port so presumably one would configure a standard Hayes modem, dialing *99# in the usual way. But I don’t fancy having to reboot at 4hrs, which could be a critical phase of the flight.
The Thesycon driver is intended to be distributed, in unlimited quantity, with hardware that they assume you will create. The licence model and pricing reflects this. They had not intended it for a single user.
If it works for you, contact them and ask if they would be prepared to negotiate a special price. It might be to your advantage if you can convince them that you won’t be contacting them daily for support.
It appears to create a virtual COM port so presumably one would configure a standard Hayes modem, dialing *99# in the usual way. But I don’t fancy having to reboot at 4hrs, which could be a critical phase of the flight.
The 4h will give you the opportunity the determine whether this makes the phone work. Once that is established, you can look for a permanent solution. It might be enough to tweak the .INF file of another driver to recognize the USB vendor/product ID. It is beyond me why Microsoft decided to not ship a universal ACM USB class driver like everybody else. I had the XT working on Linux and Mac in matter of a few minutes.
A very helpful person pointed me this this tool but while it installs OK it refuses to start, with some cryptic error messages.
Thuraya could probably sort this in 5 minutes if they could be bothered. The problem is that their handset development is prob99 outsourced completely – just like all their other phones were.
Thuraya’s “driver” is just a Microsoft signed INF file, telling the Microsoft USB class driver to talk to their vendor/product ID. They would have to adjust that to Windows 8 and have it signed again.
I’m sure the other solution will work. There is nothing special about the Thuraya XT that would require a driver to be installed, it’s just the stupid Microsoft policy of whitelisting USB ACM devices.
OK; if they come back with a reasonable price proposal then I will try it. I don’t want to even try something if the only option is a 4hr expiry.
I got this arrogant reply
They never even bothered to read my email.
