[SatNews] Iridium Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:IRDM) has established “Iridium South Africa,” under which Iridium has licenses to operate, provide and sell mobile satellite services (MSS) in the country. The authorization was provided by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the regulator for the South African communications and broadcasting services.

This authorization enables Iridium partners the ability to better address the growing government and commercial enterprise market demand with Iridium products, services and applications in the country. The Iridium low-Earth orbiting (LEO) satellite constellation provides mobile voice and data communications over the entire planet, offering service where no other means of communication exists. As a result of the new communications licenses, the government, business and consumer sectors in South Africa now have greater access to the world’s only truly global MSS. Iridium anticipates its MSS can be utilized by the South African government to provide backup communications in urban and rural areas, and in emergency situations, as is the case in many regions of the world. Iridium’s global low-latency, two-way machine-to-machine (M2M) communications are ideal for markets such as transportation, logistics, security, oil and gas, and mining where there are requirements to deliver continuous, intelligent communications on valuable assets in real time. In addition, there is significant demand from global companies looking to expand their operations in the country.

Iridium voice and data services are particularly ideal for South Africa because of its coastal access to the South Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean, as well as its large rural land mass and significant mining operations. The country’s established and emerging industries, growing infrastructure and adventure tourist industry also make Iridium an essential service in South Africa. In addition to the existing partners with export operations in South Africa, Iridium anticipates opportunities for its more than 200 global distribution partners to form new partnerships to deliver a range of innovative voice and data applications that will connect the South African market to the global reach of the Iridium network.