Inmarsat Partner Podcast with Satcom Direct and COMSAT
At the SATELLITE 2019 Conference in Washington, D.C. we sat down with David Greenhill, CEO at Satcom Direct Communications and COMSAT, to discuss its successful partnership with Inmarsat in the U.S. government market and other industry issues. Satcom Direct and its companies provide global connectivity solutions for business and general aviation, military, government, and head of state aircraft. The company also provides land mobile services to areas with connectivity limitations. Through the world’s most extensive portfolio of global narrowband and wideband, and via our ecosystem of best-of-breed wholesale channel partners such as Satcom Direct and COMSAT, we deliver robust, flexible and scalable alternatives for U.S. government customers to complement their satellite communications in both L-band and Ka-band, whenever needed.
During this video podcast, Mr. Greenhill touches upon a number of topics on why Satcom Direct and COMSAT partner with Inmarsat to include the critical role continuity, reliability and mobility play in ensuring mission success. In addition, he emphasizes the importance of cybersecurity on their network infrastructure so customer traffic is completely protected end-to-end. Mr. Greenhill points out that while it is Inmarsat’s 40th anniversary, COMSAT has been in business for 56 years and have worked together over time to establish “anytime, anywhere” connectivity to support U.S. government operations worldwide. COMSAT played a pivotal role in the establishment of Inmarsat 40 years ago, as their Southbury, CT Teleport was the first earth station utilized for services. The company was also the first partner to provide Inmarsat services – from mobile BGAN units and handheld phones to FleetBroadband and SwiftBroadband to Global Xpress — these services and on-going innovation are critical to government users who often are faced with harsh environments and missions that require constant and quick adaptation.
“It is within this spirit of limitless innovation that we move forward in our partnership fully confident that users and their missions will be supported with the most seamless, flexible, resilient, global, secure and capable SATCOM available. And we expect to be doing the same four decades from now – and beyond!” said Mr. Greenhill. “The Warfighters fight for us, and we fight for them – by providing the most reliable and secure satellite communications for 100% mission success. We don’t just see our work for the government as a contractual obligation, but a moral one. We are here to ensure that our fighting men and women have the best communications possible to ensure their mission success through our reliability and support.”
Inmarsat services are made available globally to the U.S. government thanks to our channel partners. By combining the expertise of our industry partners, who have been at the forefront of satellite communications-related technology and innovation for several decades, as well as input from our U.S. government customers, we continue to develop next-generation commercial capabilities built for users in all domains. To learn more about Inmarsat’s partnership with Satcom Direct and COMSAT watch the full video podcast below.
Transcript
What makes your partnership with Inmarsat successful?
Inmarsat has always been our primary service partner for satellite communications. We’ve always worked very closely with them to make sure that together we service and satisfy all the requirements onboard business aviation aircraft, and that carries over, of course, to the military and government as well. We’ve developed the same suite of services that provide the best continuity and reliability for the warfighter in the field. While Inmarsat’s primary mission is to provide mobile communications globally, military and government customers need that mobility and reliability for secure communications to ensure the mission is fully accomplished.
What are some of the value-added services that you provide to customers to complement Inmarsat’s offerings?
The value add that SATCOM Direct provides complements Inmarsat’s offerings. SATCOM Direct has been providing the global one number since 1997. With this proprietary dialing service, we are able to contact any aircraft anywhere in the world with a 10-digit number. CommSate Direct, of course, has been providing other services inherent to the other markets of maritime, aviation, and land mobile. We’re always there to support the customer. In aviation, when an aircraft gets prepped for flight, the communications must be working before it takes off. Usually, we have a very small window to make that happen. So, we make sure that if they’ve got an issue, they call into our support system, they’re answered by a human being, and we immediately jump on the problem to get it resolved as quickly and as effortlessly as possible.
What particular measures does your company take to protect information?
We’re at the cutting edge of offering cybersecurity solutions with our full Tier 4 data center that we built in Melbourne, Florida, right next to our headquarters. We built that and started that service about eight years ago because we knew that our customers located and flying on our corporate jets, they were probably most prone to cyberattacks than anyone else. So, we made sure we put all these security measures in place to maintain the integrity and security of their aircraft network. For military customers, we offer the same service. SATCOM Direct also has our sister company, Sicom Direct Communications and Comsat, so we carry over all of our cybersecurity tools and weapons against cyberattacks into the military and government space as well. We’re a Tier 4 facility, the highest there is when it comes to actual secure data centers, and we’ve offered that to all of our military and government customers who require it.
What is on the horizon for COMSAT?
What’s on the horizon for Comsat is to continue to provide the most secure, reliable communications through our premier partner Inmarsat to the military and government market space. The warfighters, as far as we’re concerned, fight for us, so we fight for them to make sure we provide them with the most reliable, secure communications out there in the world.
