Satellite based connectivity underpins Internet access in Iraq

The company's commercial director, Danny Wassenaar, said that Regional BGAN is becoming the fellow traveler of Arab and foreign businesses traveling in and out of the country. "In the last few months, our sales of Regional BGAN satellite modems has more then doubled on the construction, oil and gas and NGO sectors among other sectors. While it is a challenge to pin down individual users once the sale is done, we can confirm the continuous and heavy use of the Regional BGAN terminals through our sales and data traffic and billing processes."

Wassenaar explains that individual travellers, whether part of large organizations or representing their own enterprises, coming in and out of Iraq in search of business opportunities, or establishing a long term base for their operations, find in Regional BGAN a safe investment. "Internet connectivity in Iraq is in its nascent stages, with
obstacles such as low landline penetration and poor international bandwidth availability hindering increased connectivity. Inmarsat's Regional BGAN is currently offering the only satellite broadband service in the country. The service has been very popular due to its flexibility in mobility, and high speed, on-demand connectivity." Wassenaar explains that the Regional BGAN satellite modem is small enough to fit in a laptop bag, easy to set up and use, and using a shared channel delivers up to 144 kb/s anywhere in 99 countries across the Middle East, Europe, Northern and Central Africa, the Indian Subcontinent, and most of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Iraq currently lacks much of the telecom infrastructure that would permit many of these businesses to conduct their vital telecommunication needs in the country. Wassenaar explains: "The current telecommunication bid would probably solve the voice communication needs in some parts of the country. However, fast Internet access will not be available for the foreseeable future and Regional BGAN is filling that gap."