Stratos Global Corp., a global communications provider and distributor of Inmarsat satellite services, announced March 14 it won a National Individual Standing Offer (NISO) awarded by the Canadian Department of National Defense (DND) to provide Inmarsat leased satellite capacity services in support of land- and sea-based operations.

The three-year contract, with an estimated total value of cdn $25 million ($21.6 million), will facilitate the renewal of longer-term leased capacity services that the Canadian DND currently has with Stratos, as well as providing a mechanism for additional capacity as required. The offer also includes two one-year options for extension after the conclusion of the initial term in 2009.

Under the contract terms, Stratos will provide the Canadian DND with its Enhanced Leasing Service (ELS), which uses advanced modem modulation techniques to increase throughput on a standard 100 kHz Inmarsat leased satellite channel from 64 kbps to 128 kbps without the need for additional space segment.

In addition, ELS allows multiple terminals to simultaneously share a single leased channel, with per-terminal, user-controlled data rates of 32, 64, 96, and 128 kbps, in any combination up to the combined maximum rate of 128 kbps.