Rural areas get satellite

Greg Ewert, executive vice president of Iridium Satellite LLC, says: "Iridium satellite solutions can provide convenient, affordable communications service to remote villages, farms, communities and organizations where public switched and cellular telephone networks are nonexistent, unreliable or prohibitively expensive."

Satellite communications can bridge the digital gap between urban and rural areas. Iridium brings reliable, reasonably priced voice communications and Internet access to businesses and consumers in isolated areas that would otherwise be cut off from the rest of the world.

Ewert says it is also an ideal solution for time-sensitive data applications, such as tracking of critical assets in industries such as mining, resource management, commercial fishing, remote banking and forestry.

Iridium provides global voice and data communications through a constellation of 66 low-earth orbiting (LEO) cross-linked satellites. Calls and data transmission through the Iridium satellites are high quality at a low cost. In addition, Iridium's rural communications solutions can be easily integrated with existing equipment.

"Iridium service offerings for rural communications will be packaged and sold by authorized service providers, who will offer a wide range of attractive rural communications solutions and pricing programs, including convenient scratch-card billing.'