World's Top Broadcasters Use BGAN from Stratos to Cover Chilean Mine Rescue

-- BBC, Fox News and others deploy BGAN for live coverage of dramatic rescue --

BETHESDA, MD, Oct. 14 /PRNewswire/ - Stratos Global, the leading global provider of advanced mobile and fixed-site remote communications solutions, today announced it is providing the world's largest media organizations with Inmarsat BGAN mobile broadband satellite service to broadcast ongoing coverage of the Chilean Mine Rescue.

BGAN streaming services are being used by broadcasters, including the BBC and Fox News, for live video streaming from the remote mine site. The broadcasters also are using BGAN for store-and-forward video clips as well as audio streaming for radio broadcast. All BGAN traffic is routed via the Stratos global IP network, known as StratosNexus, into the broadcasters' headquarters offices worldwide.

These organizations began broadcasting news reports from the remote San Jose mine in northern Chile's Atacama Desert soon after the 33 miners became trapped on August 5th. Their coverage continued Oct. 13th when the last of the miners was rescued.

BGAN from Stratos enables media organizations to perform at optimal levels at any remote location imaginable. Journalists can effectively use BGAN services with minimal training. The premium BGAN X-Stream service is commercially available worldwide. It allows a guaranteed minimum symmetrical video streaming rate of 384 kbps, with up to 450 kbps expected under optimal conditions.

For this event, these news organizations make full use of Stratos' value-added services known as The Stratos Advantage, which enable customers to monitor airtime, restrict unauthorized usage and manage costs. The organizations also achieve guaranteed, end-to-end bandwidth for their time-critical data with a Stratos GuaranteedAccess solution custom designed by Stratos engineers.

Stratos GuaranteedAccess extends guaranteed bandwidth from the BGAN terminal through to the terrestrial infrastructure to broadcast centers. Stratos GuaranteedAccess is enabled by StratosNexus, a Stratos-managed Global Core network for traditional and IP-based services. StratosNexus is a redundant and highly resilient network, designed and optimized to carry time-sensitive satellite traffic.

During this rescue effort, Stratos continually monitored StratosNexus and provided frequent status reports to its media customers. Inmarsat also took measures to ensure the usual high level of availability and reliability of its Inmarsat-4 satellite network throughout the rescue effort.

Today's announcement is the latest example of how Stratos has helped many of the world's largest media organizations benefit from BGAN X-Stream since the service was launched last year.

"We are grateful these brave miners have been rescued, and are equally thrilled that our service is helping viewers worldwide to celebrate along with the miners' families and fellow citizens," said Stratos President and CEO Jim Parm.

Parm concluded, "It is gratifying to provide another successful deployment of Inmarsat mobile satellite services to these important, globally recognized broadcasters. Many successful deployments such as this have helped Stratos become the preferred source for media organizations who wish to use BGAN and The Stratos Advantage to achieve optimal performance and efficiency."

About BGAN from Stratos
Stratos is one of the world's largest distributors of Inmarsat's BGAN (Broadband Global Area Network) service, a mobile satellite offering that uses portable, lightweight terminals to provide video (guaranteed up to 384 kbps streaming), high-speed data (up to 492 kbps) and voice connectivity anywhere in the world. Since its introduction in late 2005, BGAN from Stratos has been widely adopted by media organizations, military agencies, first responders and professionals in many other industries worldwide. Stratos now boasts more than 14,000 BGAN activations in 185 countries.

About The Stratos Advantage
Stratos customers fully utilize The Stratos Advantage, a suite of value-added services that help elevate BGAN from Stratos far above baseline offerings. These value-added services, including Stratos Dashboard, provide users with cost control, firewall management, full traffic information, pre-paid facilities, high security options, easy VPN access, messaging services and a full range of IP options. More information on BGAN from Stratos is available at www.thepowerofbgan.com.

About Stratos
Stratos is the world's trusted leader for vital communications. Stratos offers the most powerful and extensive portfolio of remote communications solutions including mobile and fixed satellite and microwave services. More than 20,000 customers use Stratos products and industry-leading value-added services to optimize communications performance. Stratos serves U.S. and international government, military, first responder, NGO, oil and gas, industrial, maritime, aeronautical, enterprise, and media users on seven continents and across the world's oceans. Stratos is a wholly owned subsidiary of Inmarsat plc. For more information, visit www.stratosglobal.com.

SOURCE Stratos Global Corporation