Inmarsat shows next generation mobile communications @ Gitex 2002 first

Regional B-GAN offers vertical industries operating from remote areas where telecommunication is not available or in areas where mobile high-speed data is not available, mobile data communication that is expected to be twice as fast as current terrestrial General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) services. The service will be available in up to 99 countries, across the Middle East, northern half of Africa, Western and Eastern Europe and large parts of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Indian sub-continent. Regional BGAN boosts businesses data exchange capacity to up to 144 kbit/s using a secure shared channel and is deployed instantly with a lightweight satellite modem hooked to a laptop. GRPS, according to Jawad Abbasi, president of Arab Advisors Group, is a service that has not picked up yet in the region on the consumers level and is usually restricted to densely populated areas around the Arab world. "For example, GPRS, much like the GSM networks on top of which it operates, covers around 10% of the geographic area of Egypt and 6% of the geographic area of Jordan. Despite the roll out of GPRS services by most of the region telecom operators, extending the geographic coverage of GPRS is not a priority, especially that revenues are yet to cover initial investments." Regional BGAN, twice as fast as current GPRS extends mobile datacomm connectivity to wide areas not covered or served by GPRS and GSM networks. This, according to Abbassi, is an advantage for companies or individuals who need data connectivity in remote areas.

Because it is based on Internet Protocol (IP) packet technology, users only pay for the amount of data they send and receive, and not for time spent online. This enables users to stay 'always connected'.

"The service is particularly suited to applications where data is sent in bursts, such as e-mail, browsing the Web, and connecting to corporate LANs and intranets. Other applications include file transfer and FTP for downloading files from the Internet and sharing files with colleagues; e-commerce, for online ordering and procurement; and secure end-to-end connectivity over a corporate Virtual Private Network (VPN)," says Gill Govier, Director, Regional B-GAN Commercial Launch Team at Inmarsat. "With Regional BGAN, industries operating in the most remote areas in the region will be instantly able to establish direct communication, at high speed, with the rest of the world, and we are coming to Gitex to show it to the Middle East users first."

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