Inmarsat said it made the first voice call from a Nera BGAN terminal over the Inmarsat-4 satellite, a key step in preparation for the launch of its new Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN). The BGAN service takes advantage of advanced voice coding technology, giving excellent voice quality at a data rate of only 4kbps.

Terje Ask-Henriksen, president of Nera SatCom, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nera, said, “We are really proud to be part of this major breakthrough. It is terrific to witness the result of several years of hard development work. The successful voice test strengthens our belief that we are about to launch a truly great product.”

BGAN, scheduled for commercial launch at the end of 2005,will offer high-speed data connectivity at speeds of up to 492kbps, as well as voice service.