The Thuraya FT2225 terminal. Photo: Thuraya

[Via Satellite 03-15-2016] UAE-based Thuraya has partnered with ViaSat in the United States to launch a dedicated Machine-to-Machine (M2M) service across North America with a new satellite terminal. The partnership expands Thuraya’s coverage into North America for the first time.

Concurrent with the partnership, Thuraya released its new Thuraya FT2225 fixed terminal, which operates on the company’s network and on ViaSat’s Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) network, leveraging ViaSat’s L-band high capacity satellite system. The FT2225 terminal offers efficient bandwidth usage, low-latency IP networking, and high levels of security, along with a 99.9 percent Service Level Agreement (SLA).

Thuraya’s M2M strategy is founded on providing solutions to address Low Data Rate (LDR), Medium Data Rate (MDR) and High Data Rate (HDR) requirements for a range of market segments. The launch of this new service addresses the market requirements for the MDR tier of applications.

“The International Data Corporation predicts the IoT market will grow to $7.1 trillion by 2020 worldwide, from $1.9 trillion in 2013. Whichever projection you choose for the number of connected devices — Gartner’s 26 billion by 2020, Cisco’s 50 billion, or even Intel’s 200 billion — the time is right for Thuraya to grow our M2M presence across each of the three data rate tiers, and extend our geographical reach,” said Randy Roberts, chief innovation officer at Thuraya.