Jane Edwards
Iridium Communications CEO Matt Desch has said the company expects its Certus multi-service communications platform to enter the commercial market in 2018 before the complete Iridium NEXT satellite network becomes fully operational.
Desch told Runway Girl Network in an interview published Thursday that Iridium eyes the maritime sector for Certus 350 with plans to introduce Certus 700 to the commercial aviation market.
“So really aviation will be Certus 700 where I think safety services, and all kinds of stuff, will be that,†he said.
Certus 350 works to offer data transmission speed of up to 352 kilobits per second, while Certus 700 is designed to allow users to connect at a speed of 704 Kbps to 1.4 megabits per second.
Desch, an inductee into Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 for 2017, discussed Iridium’s commitment to its business model not to compete with partners as well as plans for Certus 100 and 200 that work to offer connection speeds of up to 88 Kbps and 176 Kbps, respectively.
“Certus 100 and 200 will be great for [unmanned aerial vehicles], rotocraft and [general aviation],†he added.
Desch also cited Thales, Cobham, Rockwell Collins and L3 Technologies as some of the companies that have begun to develop terminals that could be potentially integrated with its Certus service offering.
