Stratos Global Corp., a leading global communications services and solutions provider, announced Tuesday it has been chosen by Inmarsat Ltd. as a prospective Launch Partner for Inmarsat’s forthcoming Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service, scheduled for commercial launch in 2005.
As a Launch Partner, Stratos will work directly with Inmarsat during the pre-launch period to prepare business systems, assess market opportunities and develop a suite of value-added services to provide end users and distributors with maximum flexibility in purchasing and managing BGAN service.
As the next-generation mobile satellite service from Inmarsat, BGAN will offer near-global coverage for telephony and high-speed data services using small, lightweight satellite terminals.
BGAN packet data service is planned to be available in two options – a background IP option billed by the amount of data sent and received, and a streaming IP option billed by the minute with a guaranteed constant bit rate.
“As the leading global provider of the full suite of current-generation Inmarsat services, Stratos is a logical choice as a BGAN Launch Partner for Inmarsat,” said Jim Parm, Stratos’ president and chief executive officer.
“The company is truly excited about the potential of the next-generation BGAN platform to expand the market for mobile satellite services even further, and looks forward to working closely with Inmarsat during the critical pre-launch period.”
BGAN service will be provided using a new generation of satellites, known as Inmarsat 4 – scheduled to be launched in the first quarter of 2005 – that will be the most powerful communication satellites ever launched by a commercial organization.
BGAN terminals will receive data from the satellite at speeds up to 432 kbps and will support circuit voice calls and ISDN. Terminals will connect directly to a PC using a standard PC card, USB, BlueTooth or 802.11B connection for wireless data.
