Satcom Direct Demonstrates SwiftBroadband Capabilities

Satellite communications service provider Satcom Direct gave live demonstrations of Inmarsat’s broadband global area network (BGAN) land mobile technology at last month’s NBAA Convention. The precursor to the aviation-specific SwiftBroadband data service, BGAN provides a satellite link to users at speeds equivalent to a DSL connection. Current Swift64 data connections are closer in speed to those of dial-up modems, but the higher data rates should be available to business jet operators in about a year.

At NBAA 2005 Satcom Direct also offered demos of its Aero X service, which allows Swift64 customers to increase their high-speed-data rates by up to 400 percent when using EMS Satcom’s cabin network accelerator, or CNX-200, and a compatible data system available from major satcom manufacturers. Aero X is claimed to provide data speeds of up to one megabyte per second worldwide. Satcom Direct was founded in 1987 to provide satcom users with a single, worldwide phone number, a service that today remains a cornerstone of the company’s service mix under the brand name Global One Number.