Iridium has gone live with the upgraded version of its L-band Certus satcom service, with users now able to access download speeds of some 700kbps on a global basis using their existing Certus hardware.
When first launched in early 2019, Iridium Certus provided upload and download speeds of up to 352kbps. With the upgrade to Iridium Certus 700, which will be provided for free to Iridium Certus 350 subscribers, top download speeds have now doubled to a maximum of 704 kbps.
Certus maritime connectivity is delivered through Cobham’s SAILOR 4300 or Thales’ VesseLINK satellite terminals, which will be able to access the higher bandwidth speeds following a firmware update rolled out through users’ service providers. All new terminals supplied going forward will already have Iridium Certus 700 activated.
“There is nothing on the market today that matches the quality, reliability, speed and global coverage Iridium Certus delivers, and the Iridium Certus 700 upgrade clearly demonstrates this,” said Bryan Hartin, Executive Vice President, Iridium.
“Iridium Certus is now the standard when it comes to providing primary maritime or VSAT companion service, and a reliable weather-resilient broadband solution for mobile applications supporting railways, first responders, and any industry regularly working beyond the reach of terrestrial coverage.”
