While the numbers may not look large on paper compared to some of the more high profile consumer applications that tend to grab headlines, Telenor Satellite Service‘s announcement that it has doubled its customer base of its Regional Broadband Global Area Network (regional BGAN) is a good sign as it continues its preparation for launching the Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) network as soon as the end of this year.

In a press release announcing the increased subscriber base, Jeff Irwin, regional BGAN product manager at Telenor, said “The strong interest in mobile broadband communications over satellite confirms our belief that these services provide business and industry the necessary tools for continued economic growth.”

Thomas Surface, director of media and public relations at Telenor, told Satellite News that the company signed up “well over 200 new subscribers” in 2004. “When you are talking about individual mobile subscribers, it’s a pretty good number. Now our mobile subscriber list is well over 400 using these land-only terminals.”

Surface did not have available how the subscriber number breaks down in terms of average revenue per user, or ARPU. “So many of [our subscribers] are on packages where they get free monthly subscription or they get some of their megabits for free so it varies.” Surface noted that many of the packages offered to entice subscribers to come on board gave them a certain amount of free megabits to begin with ranging from numbers such as 20 megabits to 100 megabits of free airtime. However, he did say that the company has “an extremely high” retention rate, “well into the 80-90 percent retention rate of all the customers.”

Government Leading Usage

Surface noted that government agencies are leading the subscibers along with military and non-governmental organizations in the Middle East, particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq, which are right in the center of the regional BGAN footprint. “That is probably the hottest market and that’s not just for military-type operations but also for nation building and infrastructure construction-type operations.”

Surface continued: “After that, we are looking at the non-traditional markets. Finance is one that we have found to be very interested in this.”

One specific example of the growth in the financial side was when the Iraqi banking system went back online about a year ago, the banking companies used the regional BGAN system to put 80-plus automatic teller machines online. The ATMs are hooked up to a regional BGAN modem, which connects them to the central banks allowing people to do banking at remote locations.

Other markets that are gaining usage include energy and other civil government users.

Sustained Growth In 2005

As far as growth for the regional BGAN service goes, “we anticipate that regional BGAN will continue to grow very steadily because of the lowering of the megabit rates and some other incentives that we are going to apply to the market to help it continue to grow,” Surface said.

One of the things that is currently hindering the growth in this area is the regional footprint that the regional BGAN service is operating under. Surface noted that the footprint covered by the Thuraya-owned satellite that carries the regional BGAN traffic covers only Europe, the Middle East and northern and central Africa.

“The drawback for this particular technology is that it is not available for remote use outside of that footprint,” Surface said.

But he quickly added that the regional BGAN is the “stage-setter for the next generation, which will be the BGAN. The first satellite for that network is scheduled to be launched in March and service is scheduled to begin operations tentatively by the end of this year.”

–Gregory Twachtman (Thomas Surface, Telenor, 301/838-7805)