Iridium introduces new products to enhance portfolio
As many as five devices can connect to Iridium Go! simultaneously, according to the company. Data applications such as e-mail, text messaging and photo transfers are supported, but high-bandwidth applications like video are not, Thompson said. Only one voice call can be supported at a time via an Iridium Go! device, but the product acts as a “mini-PBX” that allows calls to be transferred between connected commercial handhelds, he said.
Iridium Go! is expected to be commercially available during the first half of this year at a retail price that is expected to be about $800, Thompson said. Iridium’s normal voice and data usage rates will apply to Iridium Go! customers, he said.
“We are launching this at a lower price point than any other handheld mobile device in Iridium’s history,” Thompson said.
The Iridium Pilot Land Station is an extension of the company’s OpenPort Pilot solution that has been used to support maritime and aviation communications, but the Pilot Land Station enables satellite connectivity from terrestrial locations while offering a variety of data-rate options, Thompson said.
“We really created a flexible product,” he said. “We created it, because we wanted our customer to choose the data rate they wanted to transmit at and, therefore, the price plan that they wanted to use. Because not every application requires half a megabit per second—a lot of them require 32 KB/s or 64 KB/s or the max that you can use with Land Station, which is 134 KB/s.
“We created flexibility both in the data speeds that you can use and the number of phone lines that you can attach to it. You can attach one, two or three voice lines.”
Weighing 24 pounds and measuring 22.44 inches in diameter, the Iridium Pilot Land Station is designed for use primarily as a fixed or nomadic solution, Thompson said.