Inmarsat To Offer U.S. Heavenly Broadband

Inmarsat has won FCC approval to offer its BGAN satellite-based broadband service in the U.S.: it's neither fast nor cheap, but...dang! It's the Internet! From space!

Global communciations provider Inmarsat has won the FCC’s to offer it’s BGAN broadband satellite service within the United States. The approval means the BGAN service is now available throughout North and South America, offering seamless mobile broadband access from…really, most of the Western Hemisphere for the first time.

The network is powered by Inmarsat’s I-4 satellites, which the company has spent some $1.5 billion to put into orbit, with more systems set to launch later in 2006. The satellites can each generate hundreds of beams, and use beam forming to provide pinpoint coverage in various cities and regions.

BGAN service is neither fast nor cheap: pricing for terminals appears to start near $2,500 (although I’m converting from non-US currencies via Inmarsat’s distribution partners), and connection speeds from from 144Kbps to about 492Kbps, depending on the receiver, with pricing running fro $3 to $7 per megabyte transferred. So this isn’t the sort of thing you’re going to want to use to download a series of massive system updates. But BGAN service may represent a fantastic resource for folks who literally have no other alternative such as news crews, survey teams, mountain rescuers, and maritime operations.