Two-way Emergency Satellite Communication - Coming your way

by Liz DeCastro on 18 Sep 2009 Iridium Satellite LLC (Iridium) is joining with mobile satellite industry companies and the emergency response community to form the ProTECTS (Promotion of Two-way Emergency Communication and Tracking Systems) Alliance.

The primary goal of the alliance is to foster the rapid and orderly adoption of portable, two-way satellite-based location, tracking and messaging technologies.

The alliance will provide a forum for addressing issues affecting the suppliers and users of these vital safety devices. It also will seek to foster the development and deployment of bi-directional satellite data solutions meeting the requirements of the growing population of government and business organizations using portable tracking devices, as well as the public-safety community.

“The ProTECTS Alliance will advocate for industry standards based on two-way satellite data links,” said Patrick Shay, vice president and general manager of Iridium’s data division.

“Soldiers in the field, disaster relief workers, pipeline inspectors in remote oil fields, helicopter pilots fighting forest fires, scientific expeditions in the Antarctic and sailors on the high seas are all relying on satellite location technology as a critical safety lifeline, and the interactive bi-directional data link helps ensure their distress messages are heard and that help reaches them.”

“While one-way emergency beacons can provide a valuable aid to life-saving services, experience has shown that they can have a high incidence of false alerts triggered by accidental activations,” observed retired Admiral James Loy, former U.S. Coast Guard Commandant and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. “This places a heavy burden on first responders who must try to verify, by independent means, the validity of the distress signal before deploying rescue resources.

'The large number of distress alert messages makes it impractical – and prohibitively expensive – for authorities to launch search-and-rescue (SAR) operations without determining whether it is a real emergency or an inadvertent activation.”

To help further the goals of the ProTECTS Alliance, Iridium also is launching a strategic initiative to focus its internal engineering, R&D, product certification, activations, marketing and channel sales support resources to assist Service Partners (SP) in bringing these personal safety products and services to market.


While Iridium is the founding member of the ProTECTS Alliance, membership is open to mobile satellite service (MSS) providers, software developers, manufacturers, system integrators, resellers, distributors, industry experts, SAR authorities, first responders, trade associations, regulatory bodies and user groups.

Charter members of the Alliance are: Active Web Solutions (AWS); Argon ST; Backcountry Access, Inc.; Blackbird Technologies, Inc.; Blue Sky Network, LLC; Cobham ACR Products; DMC Worldwide Corporation LLC; EMS Global Tracking; IonEarth; KANNAD; L-3 Communications; McMurdo; NAL Research Corporation; Paradigm Secure Communications Ltd; Premier GPS Inc.; Roadpost Inc.; Solara Remote Data Delivery Inc.; Spidertracks Ltd; TracPlus Global Limited; and Travel Safety Group LTD.

“Eleven Iridium SPs in 30 countries offer two-way short-burst data (SBD) solutions for personal locating, tracking and messaging through Iridium satellites,” said Shay. “SBD represents a very efficient use of our satellite capacity for tracking and monitoring everything from vehicles to construction machines to individuals in remote areas.”



About Iridium Satellite LLC:

Iridium Satellite LLC (www.iridium.com) is the only MSS company offering coverage over the entire globe. The Iridium constellation of low-earth orbiting (LEO), cross-linked satellites provides critical voice and data services for areas not served by terrestrial communication networks. Iridium’s subscriber growth has been driven by increasing demand for reliable, global communications. Iridium serves commercial and government markets through a worldwide network of hundreds of distributors. The company’s customers represent a broad spectrum of industry, including maritime, aeronautical, government/defense, public safety, utilities, oil/gas, mining, forestry, heavy equipment and transportation. Iridium has launched a major development program for its next-generation satellite constellation, Iridium NEXT, which will result in continued and new Iridium MSS offerings. The company is headquartered in Bethesda, Md., U.S., and is currently privately held.