Stratos Global Corporation announced that JSAT MOBILE Communications Inc. (JSAT MOBILE) has been granted a radio license by the Kanto Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
The license authorizes JSAT MOBILE to offer Inmarsat BGAN and FleetBroadband mobile satellite communications services in Japan and on Japanese-registered vessels. The license is effective from February 17, ensuring that JSAT MOBILE is prepared when Inmarsat's I-4 F3 satellite becomes operational as scheduled on February 24th. On that date, Inmarsat will begin offering full global coverage for BGAN and FleetBroadband, adding Pacific Ocean coverage to its existing coverage of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Stratos formed the joint venture company JSAT MOBILE in August with SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (SKY Perfect JSAT) to serve the mobile satellite communications needs of Japanese businesses and government agencies. BGAN from Stratos (with data speeds up to 492 kbps) is ideally suited to enable land-mobile communications in areas where terrestrial or cellular networks are damaged, congested, non-existent or too difficult to deploy. Stratos now boasts more than 10,000 BGAN activations for military and NGO agencies, media organizations, first responders and professionals in many other industries in 185 countries worldwide. For the maritime market, FleetBroadband from Stratos provides on-demand guaranteed IP data rates (up to 432 kbps), regardless of the vessel's location. Stratos has activated hundreds of FleetBroadband terminals for commercial, military and leisure vessels.