B777 captain reported being notified enroute that the flight did not have the required alternate air...

Narrative:

At dispatch shift change new dispatcher realized that brw was at 1/2 mile and required 5/8. We and the initial dispatcher missed the 5/8ths even after looking at the brw airport in jepp pro. The dispatcher; recognized the error before we entered ETOPS airspace; with brw being the second ETOPS alternate and requiring ETOPS exit and entry to brw; way down the line.when we went to acknowledge the change to 180 minutes ETOPS; we lost data link and voice on inmarsat. We changed to iridium and had no luck either. We changed back to inmarsat and eventually established contact. Iridium has proven to be no more reliable than inmarsat. In this case we were not that far north.the international relief officer's reported they continued to have problems with data link and voice throughout the polar region. Ldoc was no help; as they were unable to find a manned frequency.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B777 Captain reported being notified enroute that the flight did not have the required alternate airport conditions; but could not reply via Inmarsat or Iridium; and that LDOC was unmanned.

Narrative: At dispatch shift change new dispatcher realized that BRW was at 1/2 mile and required 5/8. We and the initial dispatcher missed the 5/8ths even after looking at the BRW airport in jepp pro. The dispatcher; recognized the error before we entered ETOPS airspace; with BRW being the second ETOPS alternate and requiring ETOPS exit and entry to BRW; way down the line.When we went to acknowledge the change to 180 minutes ETOPS; we lost data link and voice on inmarsat. We changed to iridium and had no luck either. We changed back to inmarsat and eventually established contact. Iridium has proven to be no more reliable than inmarsat. In this case we were not that far north.The IRO's reported they continued to have problems with data link and voice throughout the polar region. LDOC was no help; as they were unable to find a manned frequency.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1526052
Time
Date	201803
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B777-200
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Total 17000 Flight Crew Type 4193.92
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

B777 captain reported being notified enroute that the flight did not have the required alternate airport conditions; but could not reply via inmarsat or iridium; and that ldoc was unmanned.