Digital rendering of Iridium NEXT constellation. Photo: Iridium

Iridium Communications announced the first Iridium Certus service providers for land-mobile applications, planned for commercial availability in mid-2018. This initial group of six service providers will play a pivotal role in bringing Iridium Certus to market, which will deliver global broadband connectivity and voice service to the land-mobile industry.

The initial Iridium Certus service providers for land mobile applications include: Applied Satellite Technology (AST), Arion Communication, Kaigai Communication, MVS USA, Network Innovations US, and Spacenet.

According to Iridium, Certus will extend the reach of terrestrial and cellular infrastructure to support critical connectivity needs regardless of location, terrain and weather events. The service will feature a range of data speed options and will integrate with the Thales MissionLink terminal, providing a connection for voice, satellite internet, cellular data, Land Mobile Radio (LMR) and location-based applications. With Certus, customers will be able to control costs by eliminating the need to deploy expensive ground-based infrastructure or large, expensive directional terminals that rely upon Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites, the company stated.

“This flexible solution, when combined with the Thales MissionLink satellite terminal, allows customers to automatically transition between satellite and cellular infrastructure when paired with an LTE terminal,” said Josh Miner, executive director for the land-mobile business at Iridium.