Press release
Inmarsat Regional BGAN wins top award for banking technology
03-06-2003 - Inmarsat has won the Network Infrastructure (Retail and Wholesale Banking) award for its Regional BGAN service at this year's The Banker Technology Awards. The annual award scheme, which had over 1000 entries this year, recognizes best of breed, innovation and success in financial technology.
"Inmarsat won this award because of its innovative approach to delivering high-speed connectivity to financial institutions wherever they may be in the world," said Parveen Bansal, The Banker's Technology Editor. "The Inmarsat Regional BGAN service reduces the reliance on physical infrastructure and provides banks, financial services organisations and individuals, with reliable high-speed data links to even the most remote of villages or towns. It will fundamentally change the way many financial companies do business."
Inmarsat's financial customers agree; Anatoli Arkhipox, IT & Product Development Director, Hanza, a Latvian company specialising in the provision of electronic and financial services states, "Regional BGAN will change the 'face' of Hanza. In Eastern Europe data services are poor and limited mainly to the built-up areas. Even then these networks are slow and not always reliable or secure. With a Regional BGAN terminal in every customer premise and every Hanza field worker, our customers and employees will be able to communicate with us on a daily basis via their computers. Regional BGAN brings us into to the leading edge delivering competitive advantage and greater customer service."
" We are absolutely delighted to win this award for Regional BGAN," said Gill Govier, Director of Land Business Development at Inmarsat. "Business today is becoming increasingly mobile and organisations are demanding constant and consistent access to IT resources ¿ wherever they happen to be. Inmarsat is at the forefront of high-speed, secure and reliable mobile data communications via satellite. Our technology means that organisations can work efficiently, irrespective of the limitations of the terrestrial network. This opens up tremendous new opportunities for the banking and finance industry, and we are currently undergoing trials with a number of banks around the world."
Regional BGAN represents the next stage in the evolution of Inmarsat's data services portfolio. The service provides 24x7 connectivity to any application or information source securely over a 144 kbit/s shared channel from virtually any location across 99 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Indian subcontinent and Northern Africa. Key features include:
- Continuous coverage within the satellite footprint
- A lightweight, portable satellite IP modem
- Value for money, with users being charged only for the amount of data sent and received rather than time spent online
- Connectivity at more than twice the speed of current terrestrial GPRS services
- "Always on" access to the Internet and corporate data networks
- Secure VPN access
Inmarsat's Regional BGAN is based on standard GPRS and IP technology, enabling businesses to utilise business applications and software that run on their home IT networks. It enables business users to access email, connect to their corporate LAN or browse the web as if they were at their own desktop ¿ whether on the move, at temporary office sites or in remote locations.
"This award is further evidence of us meeting customers' demands for reliable, high-speed and cost-efficient communications. With Regional BGAN, we can help businesses extend their corporate networks quickly and reliably into the field, while at the same time offering developing countries a cost-effective entry into the Internet age," adds Gill Govier.
Inmarsat has also recently become an executive member of Automated Teller Machine Industry Association (ATMIA) for Europe and Africa. The ATM business represents a great opportunity for Regional BGAN as each time an ATM transaction takes place there is a data exchange - this averages around 1Kb between the ATM and the processing or control centre - as the machine seeks authorization for the transaction. In many instances, Regional BGAN offers a more affordable solution for this data exchange than fixed-line connectivity.
Additionally, in remote areas, where there is no fixed-line connectivity,
Regional BGAN enables banks to roll out ATM services without the need for a
telecoms infrastructure. It also opens up the potential for mobile ATM services,
where an ATM mounted on a truck would visit villages that would otherwise not
have access to such machines.
