Photo: Thales.

Speedcast has signed an agreement to become a land-mobile service provider for Iridium Certus. Designed for on-the-move vehicles, assets and teams, Iridium Certus will enable capabilities such as real-time vehicle tracking, internet, and phone and data transfer.

Already a maritime launch partner for Iridium Certus, Speedcast will bring its international network to the land-mobile program as well. According to Tim Bailey, executive vice president of products, marketing and business development at Iridium Certus will complement Speedcast’s Atlas managed services portfolio.

Specific to the land-mobile market, Iridium Certus will run on the new Thales MissionLink terminal for off-the-grid public safety, utility, oil and gas, military and non-government organization applications. The service will offer global L-band satellite broadband communications that can smoothly transition between satellite and cellular connectivity as needed.

According to Iridium, testing for Certus is already underway. The service will be commercially introduced in a series of service classes. Current focus is on the 352 Kbps speed class, which will be updated to 704 Kpbs through a firmware update available at a later date.