Iridium Communications Inc., the only mobile satellite service (MSS) company offering coverage worldwide, is slated to launch Global Service Program for its Iridium (News - Alert) OpenPort broadband marine satellite communication product in early 2011.

Officials with Iridium said that this new program aims to provide full-service shipboard support to any Iridium OpenPort customer at more than 50 ports around the globe. Iridium is the first mobile satellite service provider to offer full-service support of this kind for any of its products and is world's only global voice and data service specifically engineered for maritime use.

Company officials pointed out that as part of this initiative, Iridium has signed an agreement with Radio Holland to be the first service partner for the Iridium OpenPort Global Service Program. Radio Holland, a member of Imtech Marine and a specialized company in the supply, installation, integration and service of maritime electronics, will provide portside technical support and assist Iridium with efficient global logistics, managing three regional service centers enabling timely support at all major ports worldwide.

"Iridium recognizes the critical nature of maritime communications, and has established this program to provide customers timely expert support," said John Roddy (News - Alert), executive vice president, global operations and product development at Iridium, in a statement. Roddy said that instituting the Global Service Program is an important element in the company’s business strategy for Iridium OpenPort, and this agreement with Radio Holland is a significant step in that direction.

"Radio Holland operates one of the most extensive service networks in the maritime industry, which will help to provide global 24-7 support for Iridium OpenPort," said David Slager, CEO of Radio Holland Group. He said that Iridium OpenPort offers the highest quality and lowest cost of ownership of any communications solution for ship's business and crew welfare.

TMCnet recently reported that Iridium Communications released the latest version of its Direct Internet software package – Direct Internet 3—which customers can now quickly connect to the internet from their Iridium 9555 and Iridium 9505A satellite phones, along with the Iridium 9522B L-Band Transceiver (LBT). The latest version is supposedly powered by SlipStream (News - Alert) SP 6.0 with Now!Imaging compression technology, the most widely deployed Web and email acceleration technology.
Anil Sharma is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell