Iridium Satellite L.L.C. announced it added push-to-talk services to its worldwide satellite-based network, allowing customers to deploy what the carrier calls “multi-user communication nets.”
Separately, Iridium announced it will sell a new data transceiver based on its Short Burst Data technology, which will support asset tracking, remote monitoring and telemetry reporting applications.
Iridium’s new PTT service follows the growth of the technology in the wireless industry, as carriers including Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS launched services to compete with Nextel Communications Inc.’s Direct Connect PTT service.
“The Iridium group call push-to-talk communications service will be able to link three, four, a dozen or even hundreds of users together into an effective network,” said Greg Ewert, Iridium’s executive vice president. “This Iridium service will offer the virtual equivalent of repeater stations in space. The need to position a repeater station on a mountaintop or a tall-and vulnerable-structure will no longer exist.”
Iridium said it expects to initially deploy the PTT service for the U.S. Department of Defense by the fourth quarter of this year. Additional customers will gain access to the service next year.
As for Iridium’s new machine-to-machine telemetry technology, the carrier said its new 9600 transceiver is optimized for the frequent data transmissions that asset tracking and remote monitoring applications typically require. The carrier said the low-cost transceiver will be delivered later this year, and value-added manufacturers and resellers will integrate the transceiver into a wide range of satellite data communications products for specific vertical market applications.
