Despite attempts by the Egyptian government to curtail communications services early in the crisis, a number of major news organizations, including the BBC and Fox News, were able to continue to file reports using satellite broadband services provided by Stratos Global.
The Stratos Global services were used from the start of the crisis but became crucial after the Egyptian government shut down all terrestrial Internet connectivity and mobile phone service. The BGAN service enabled these broadcasters to continue newsgathering in Egypt and transmit live reports to their studios, without interruption.
The broadcasters have also been using BGAN for Internet connectivity, store-and-forward video clips, and audio streaming for radio broadcast and was widely used last year during the Haitian disaster, when the earthquake knocked out many regular telecommunication services.
"Major news events like these, under seemingly impossible conditions, remind the world's top broadcasters of the indispensable nature of BGAN and the reliability of the Stratos network," noted Stratos President and CEO Jim Parm in a statement.
All BGAN traffic from these organizations is routed via the Stratos global IP network, known as StratosNexus, into the broadcasters' studios worldwide, where it is continually monitored to ensure high quality connectivity even during this period of heightened usage.
The premium BGAN X-Stream service allows a guaranteed minimum symmetrical video streaming rate of 384 kbps, with up to 450 kbps expected under optimal conditions. Stratos currently has over 14,500 BGAN activations in 185 countries.
