Gateway Earth Station coming up in Oman

31/07/2014 10:09 AST

US-based global telecom services provider ORBCOMM says its Oman partner Mahd Telecom has been granted regulatory approval to roll out wireless machine-to-machine communications services targeted at, among other areas, the oil and gas, transportation, logistics and maritime sectors.

Also as part of this deployment, ORBCOMM plans to set up a Gateway Earth Station in the Sultanate — a facility designed to enable Mahd Telecom to also cover markets across the Arabian Peninsula.

Machine to machine (M2M) communication enables networked devices to exchange information and perform actions without the manual assistance of humans. M2M communication is often used for remote monitoring. It is widely used in warehouse management, remote control, robotics, traffic control, logistic services, supply chain management, fleet management and telemedicine. It forms the basis for a concept known as the Internet of Things (IoT).

A global provider of M2M solutions, New Jersey headquartered ORBCOMM Inc is regarded as a leading provider of tracking, monitoring and control services for the transportation industry. Significantly, the new Gateway Earth Station planned in the Sultanate, along with a similar newly acquired facility in Brazil, will join 14 other strategically located earth stations owned by ORBCOMM around the world. This ground-based network infrastructure is hooked up with ORBCOMM’s expanding constellation of low-earth satellites.

“In addition to providing links to ORBCOMM’s fleet of first generation satellites, ORBCOMM’s global network of (Gateway Earth Stations) will also enable ORBCOMM to deliver the advanced services provided by its recently launched ORBCOMM Generation 2 (OG2) satellites, making ORBCOMM’s M2M communications offerings even more efficient, reliable and globally available,” the US based telco said in a statement.

ORBCOMM’s chief executive office Marc Eisenberg said the regulatory approvals, coupled with the planned installation of a Gateway Earth Station in the Sultanate, will significantly improve service levels in the Middle East region and provide satellite access to a new major market for its solutions.

A representative of Mahd Telecom added: “We have been following ORBCOMM’s growing momentum with great excitement and are pleased to have the ability to help bring ORBCOMM’s products and services to the GCC and broader Middle East region. We believe that given Mahd Telecom’s understanding of the local customer base and ORBCOMM’s broad range of M2M offerings we will be able to offer new products and services to the oil and gas sector as well as address several underserved markets such as refrigerated and dry fleet container tracking and many new projects focused around the maritime industry not only in Oman, but also throughout the region.”

Oman Daily Observer