With always-on Ethernet and three voice lines that can be used simultaneously, Iridium OpenPort will deliver reliable, cost-effective communications for shipping and fishing fleets around the globe. Iridium will offer a number of service packages that bundle data usage and voice minutes for one low monthly fee.

Larger-volume voice and data packages offer progressive per-unit discounts. Service packages will be available at speeds of 9.6kbps, 32kbps, 64kbps and 128kbps.

Customers using Iridium OpenPort from Stratos will benefit from The Stratos Advantage, a suite of value-added services that help make satellite communications more productive and affordable by providing cost control, traffic control and data optimization.

The cornerstone of The Stratos Advantage is Stratos Dashboard, with which the new Iridium OpenPort systems will be fully integrated. Stratos Dashboard rapidly provides information on the amount of traffic used for voice and data, and the associated costs. It is used by thousands of Stratos BGAN and Iridium customers around the globe.

"Iridium OpenPort offers a fresh alternative for the marine satcom market," said Greg Ewert, executive vice president, Global Distribution Channels, Iridium.

"It is rapidly gaining broad market acceptance due to its unique value proposition of multiple phone circuits, IP connectivity and cost-effective, scalable, higher-speed data solutions, backed by Iridium's global reach and high network quality. Advance orders for Iridium OpenPort terminals are outpacing forecasts, and we are on track for commercial deliveries to begin in the third quarter of this year."

Today Stratos also introduced a new version of Stratos Dashboard for Iridium, which includes enhanced traffic-monitoring and credit-management options to minimize potential financial risk.

Stratos is the first company to offer its Iridium customers the option to instantly provision their Iridium phones online via a direct interface with Iridium provisioning systems. In addition to post-paid Iridium SIM cards, customers can now also place orders on all Iridium Short Burst Data (SBD) services to activate, suspend, deactivate and reactivate equipment.

The service's credit-management features can be configured for individual SIM cards or SBD devices. Customers can create credit-control groups and place any postpaid SIM card or SBD device within them. They can also control the individual SIM card or group.

Stratos Dashboard for Iridium is available now for postpaid Iridium services and is expected to support prepaid Iridium services later this year. Access and usage of Stratos Dashboard for Iridium is free to Stratos partners and end users.

"The addition of Iridium OpenPort demonstrates our commitment to meet evolving customer requirements by continually expanding our extensive portfolio of communications solutions," Stratos President and CEO Jim Parm.

"We also expect the new service updates to Stratos Dashboard for Iridium will continue to position Stratos as the preferred provider of the Iridium global phone service."

Stratos' Iridium customers can familiarize themselves with Stratos Dashboard via a new e-learning module. The module offers users a self-paced overview of the capabilities and set up of Stratos Dashboard for Iridium.

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