Satellite Phones Begin the BGAN

Broadcasters are a BGAN core user group.

Satellite phones are getting a makeover at the hands of Inmarsat, which recently launched Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN). Six years in development, BGAN provides global voice and broadband via portable devices, with guaranteed IP data rates on demand.

“The difference from satellite phones you saw during the invasion of Iraq, for instance, and this new generation is that it has all the GSM bells and whistles, including call forwarding and voice mail, and it can send and receive large amounts of data quickly,” says Frank August, Inmarsat’s regional director for North America. “In an emergency response situation, for example, it’s about sharing information, not just making phone calls. Mobile broadband has been a critically missing piece for those on the edge of terrestrial networks.”

BGAN offers IP data speeds of up to 492kbps, with the option of guaranteed data rates up to 256kbps. The service is designed for those working in areas with an unreliable or nonexistent telecom infrastructure. Users include broadcasters, aid organizations, oil and gas workers, miners, construction engineers, insurance adjusters working in disaster areas and the military.

“There also are telemedicine applications for this, the monitoring of critical infrastructure, ongoing protection of utility assets and others,” says August. “Our marketing plan for ’06 includes every vertical market, since they all have the potential of having workers who are out of reach of typical services.”

Users get a voice mailbox and can access corporate networks via secure VPN connections, use e-mail and other office applications, send SMS messages, video conference, browse the Internet, send large file attachments, make VoIP calls, stream video or audio, and make regular phone calls at the same time, directly from the terminal on a dedicated voice line. It also supports a range of encryption standards for secure communications.

Users have a choice of five lightweight satellite terminals, which are designed for outdoor use, and weigh between two and five pounds. A laptop or pocket PC plugs into the terminal via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Ethernet.

The service launched in December across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Network coverage will be extended to North and South America in the second quarter of this year, resulting in broadband coverage across 85 percent of the world’s landmass and 98 percent of the world’s population via the two Inmarsat-4 satellites.

BGAN is offered via wholesale partners such as hardware distributors and service providers like British Telecom plc and France Telecom. A range of hardware bundles are available, costing $1,600 to $3,700 depending on options for a 64-kilobit channel and WLAN connectivity. The user also pays a monthly fee for the network and for background IP usage, equivalent to GPRS rates at $8 to $12 per megabit. Guaranteed bit rates and ISDN usage are billed by the minute, and SMS is billed by the message.

“Gone are the days of choppy video and slow, fuzzy connections,” says August. “This is an entirely new approach to satellite communications.”