At the time, Inmarsat said that SkyWave’s GlobalWave satellite low data rate (SLDR) products and services assets could help capture an SLDR market worth $600 million in end-user revenues. Since then, SkyWave has played a much larger role in Inmarsat’s satellite network leverage plan by contributing its IDP 600 series all-weather data terminal to support the launch of the IsatData Pro low data rate service.

   IsatData Pro, which was unveiled at the SATELLITE 2011 conference, uses capacity on the Inmarsat-4 satellites to offer payload capacity delivering up to 10,000 bytes to the device and up to 6,400 bytes from the device. IsatData Pro enables M2M applications including: vehicle telemetry information, text messaging to remote workers, maintaining up-to-date driver logs and the remote management and control of fixed assets.

   Inmarsat Director of Land Services Drew Brandy and Skywave Communications Vice President of IsatData Pro Services Sean Faulkner spoke with Satellite News on the day of IsatData Pro service launch to outline the plans both companies have in store for its target markets.

 

Satellite News: Which aspects of Inmarsat’s market helped drive the development of IsatData Pro?

Brandy: IsatData Pro was developed strictly with our audience in mind. We’ve worked with BGAN and voice service customers during the past several years in markets that operate in remote environments, and we took notice of certain requirements they were developing that we were unable to address or serve properly through our existing products. Some of these requirements included, for example, a lower data-rate type terminal, a capability that supported a tracking functionality and remote M2M communications. Through conversations with end-users and SkyWave, we started looking at how we could better address some of those opportunities. The idea was not only to develop new market opportunities for both Inmarsat and SkyWave, but also to reach deeper into our existing customer bases and serving them with a broader set of products. SkyWave’s technology contribution allowed us to do that.

Brandy: The launch was the result of a combination of Inmarsat’s market strengths, such as our global IP network and distribution channel, with the engineering knowledge and M2M market heritage of our partners at SkyWave. That partnership also helps us strengthen our position in markets like transportation, where SkyWave has long been active in delivering solutions to the market, and will take us into a number of new market segments. The utility sector, for example, is an area where we can now deliver new smart-metering and smart-grid applications, along with the oil and gas segment, where we can provide new SCADA-type applications.

 

Faulkner: At SkyWave, we’ve deployed more than 400,000 satellite terminals in the 15 years we’ve been servicing the satellite market, with a special focus on tracking, alarming and exception reporting applications that were driven by solutions requiring transferring data file sizes in the tens of bytes. The IsatData Pro service is a turnkey solution based on current technology products in the market and designed to deliver superior capability in the thousands of bytes to and from the customer’s assets. Those supported applications will only increase in size and capability as the technology evolves and will help Inmarsat tap into wider markets within transportation and other enterprise sectors that have expanded requirements.

 

 

Faulker: This is a brand new service, so while it builds on Inmarsat’s ground and space segment infrastructure, it constitutes brand new network infrastructure for Earth stations and servers around the globe. In addition to that, we have a brand new generation of terminal and modem technology. The customer can integrate on-board applications into the terminal. We’ll be providing this capability for both land- and maritime-based versions of the solution. We also are rolling out with a series of modem solutions that allow large OEMs and integrators to be able to merge these capabilities into their own terminal products as well. All of these features will help our customers prepare these solutions so that they can be put out to market as quickly as possible.

 

Brandy: The same approach, in terms of applications and technology, applies to the public safety arena as well, where satellite communications provide service to first responders operating in areas with destroyed terrestrial infrastructure.

 

 

Faulker: In our transportation and oil and gas business, one of our largest markets is currently Latin America. We have customers today in that region that will take our satellite-only product that can deliver tens of bytes and integrate that into a terrestrial solution, so that when drivers are in terrestrial coverage space, they’ll get telemetry, bus and communications to the driver with a fair amount of data. When drivers leave the terrestrial coverage space, they switch into satellite mode that delivers bytes in tens for position reporting and panic button capability. The typical driver, however, doesn’t usually understand the coverage concept and why their capabilities drop so significantly when they move into satellite space. With IsatData Pro we can offer them a convergence of terrestrial capability and satellite capability so that their applications do not necessarily have to change.

 

 

Faulkner: If you look at North America, we have solutions in the transportation sector that allow one to track assets in the trailer. With IsatData Pro, we can now move into the cab and start to offer in-cab messaging capability, telemetry data to the cab and interaction with the driver to comply with legislation on the required tax reporting and hours of service.