Businesses in Asia are increasingly banking on satellite communications and mobile data and voice services to expand their operations into hard-to-reach markets like China.
Lack of telecommunications infrastructure, sometimes erratic power supplies and extreme temperatures that can damage terrestrial lines are some of the major challenges to establishing business operations in areas such as the remote provinces of China or North Korea.
"Businesses operating in China can benefit from using mobile satellite communication services...to network their offices for both voice and data communication," said CEO of Inmarsat, Michael Storey.
"Regional and remote country offices can keep in touch with company headquarters, suppliers, and the World Wide Web using voice telephone, fax, email, remote LAN or file transfer."
Global networking
For instance, China Transportation & Telecom Centre is using the Inmarsat Global Area Network (GAN) World Communicator to enable their staff working in Xinjiang - a remote part of Western China - to stay in touch with its Beijing headquarters.
Inmarsat's mobile ISDN GAN service allows a corporate LAN or WAN to be extended beyond the geographic limitations of terrestrial telecommunications, and is delivered via Inmarsat's network of nine satellites positioned in geo-stationary orbit at about 36,000km above the Equator.
It also supports other communications solutions such as email, e-commerce, Intranet access, image transfer and store-and-forward video services. This is a far cry from the typical stand-alone notebook operations many global businesses have to endure when operating in China or North Korea.
-Our satellite traffic levels in the Pacific region, which includes Australasia, most of China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, have increased by approximately 14 percent in the last 12 months. This region now represents approximately 19 percent of our total global traffic level," said Storey.
