London, UK. October 24, 2012 – Inmarsat, a provider of global mobile satellite communications services, and its partner SkyWave Mobile Communications report that SkyWave has secured sales of 12,000 IsatData Pro M2M terminals in the year to date.
SkyWave Mobile Communications specialises in wireless data communications for the fixed and mobile M2M market. This early sales success validates Inmarsat and SkyWave’s collaboration in the burgeoning machine-to-machine (M2M) market and leads the two companies into new M2M segments such as transportation, oil & gas, utilities and mining.
IsatData Pro is a jointly developed service that teams SkyWave’s range of terminals with Inmarsat’s global L-band satellite network to offer what the pair claim is the highest payload and lowest latency of any L-band satellite store-and-forward service. It is designed for a wide range of enhanced M2M applications including: SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) communications for systems that monitor gas pipelines and oil wells; and communications to/from telemetry and tracking devices for transport fleet management systems.
“The success of the IsatData Pro service so early on is testament to the fact that both we and SkyWave have listened to customers and developed a solution that combines the highest payload and lowest latency of any L-band satellite store-and-forward service on the market today,” said Ronald Spithout, president, Inmarsat Enterprise.
“As well as being a highly cost-effective solution for a wide range of industry sectors, the IsatData Pro service enables organisations to share much richer information in M2M applications than has previously been possible. Satellite is now very much part of a company’s M2M strategy, either for closing gaps in terrestrial coverage or, increasingly, as a way of improving the reliability of M2M communications,” Spithout added.
“Satellite-based M2M services are becoming more and more important to organisations operating in key sectors such as oil & gas, banking and finance, merchant shipping, commercial fishing, environmental monitoring, utilities, transport and government,” said Dan Poirier, SkyWave Senior Vice President, Operations. “Together with Inmarsat we deliver a reliable, cost-effective solution for enhanced M2M services that addresses these organisations’ pain points. The great sales momentum we are seeing with our IsatData Pro terminals only serves to reinforce the relevance of our combined proposition for the M2M market.”
The IsatData Pro service offers a flexible, smart way to connect people and assets anywhere in the world and is accessed via SkyWave’s IDP terminal family which includes: two satellite-only terminals for land and maritime use; an integrated satellite-cellular terminal for workforce automation and other intelligent business services; and a range of modems for system integration in high-volume applications. All terminals have omni-directional antennas that allow for easy deployment and mobile use. Long-life batteries can be used to power terminals for multiple years without recharging or maintenance.
Inmarsat offers the broadest M2M satellite portfolio of any L-band satellite operator. IsatData Pro and Isat M2M are ideal for lower data rate requirements, such as basic tracking and telemetry applications for fixed and mobile assets. Inmarsat’s high data rate service is BGAN M2M, which launched in February this year and offers real-time IP data speeds of up to half a megabit per second.
Because Inmarsat’s M2M service operates in the L-band spectrum, it offers 99.9% network availability and a ubiquitous, resilient and flexible solution for remote, unmanned locations. Nor is the network subject to rain fade or impacted by other harsh weather conditions. L-band also allows for a high degree of antenna pointing tolerance, simplifying installation and adding to the reliability of unmanned terminals in an open environment.
SkyWave Mobile Communications is a global provider of wireless data communications for the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) market. SkyWave’s products provide dependable communication, tracking, monitoring and remote management of fixed and mobile assets. Over the past 15 years, SkyWave has designed, manufactured and shipped more than 550,000 Inmarsat-based satellite terminals to customers globally in the transportation, maritime, oil and gas, utilities and government sectors. For more information, please visit www.SkyWave.com.
Inmarsat plc (LSE:ISAT.L) is the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services. Since 1979, Inmarsat has been providing reliable voice and high-speed data communications to governments, enterprises and other organisations, with a range of services that can be used on land, at sea or in the air. Inmarsat employs around 1,500 staff in more than 40 locations around the world, with a presence in the major ports and centres of commerce on every continent.
