[Satellite Today 12-29-08] Inmarsat will switch off its Regional Broadband Global Area Network (R-BGAN) services worldwide at 11:59 p.m. UTC Dec. 31, the company announced Dec. 19. The service has already been terminated in South America as of Dec. 15.
    R-BGAN is the predecessor to Inmarsat BGAN, which offers higher data rates in addition to simultaneous voice connection. Introduction of the service in 2002 signaled Inmarsat’s entry into the IP data connectivity market and has been a major contributing factor to the launch of BGAN in November 2005.
    “From February 2009, users will be able to use [BGAN] to communicate around the globe, following the introduction of the third and final Inmarsat-4 satellite," Robert Bishop, commercial manager for Inmarsat land mobile service, said in a statement.