Iridium Certus: L-band broadband for maritime, aviation and IoT (video)
A 2.5-minute product video (November 2019) from reseller Apollo Satellite presenting Iridium Certus, the multi-service L-band platform on the upgraded Iridium constellation for maritime, IoT, aviation, land mobile and government users. We explain what Certus is for in a Starlink world: the truly global, weather-proof, safety-grade fallback.
In this video
Apollo Satellite, a US satellite equipment reseller, published this 2 minute 32 second promotional video on 21 November 2019. Per its description, it presents Iridium Certus as "an advanced multi-service platform enabled by the upgraded Iridium constellation", offering "the highest L-band data throughput" for maritime, IoT, aviation, land mobile and government applications. It is a vendor clip: expect product shots and claims rather than measurements.
Why it matters for a business buyer
Iridium is the only constellation with true pole-to-pole coverage: 66 cross-linked satellites at about 780 km, replaced in 2017 to 2019 by the Iridium NEXT generation that Certus runs on. Certus comes in service classes named after their speed (Certus 100 for IoT and messaging, Certus 200 and 700 for maritime and aviation broadband, with 700 offering up to 704 kbps down), through terminals from partners such as Cobham, Thales and Intellian. Compared with Starlink's hundreds of megabits it is narrowband, and priced per megabyte or per plan accordingly. It survives for three reasons that matter to a fleet or an aircraft operator:
- Coverage and safety: L-band works in rain and at any latitude, and Iridium is recognised for GMDSS distress and safety services, which Starlink is not.
- Small, unpointed antennas that fit a helicopter, a buoy or a vehicle.
- Independence: a second, physically different network for when the Ku/Ka link is down, geofenced (Starlink must be switched off in Chinese waters, for example) or jammed.
In practice most commercial vessels now run Starlink as primary with an L-band or GEO fallback; our maritime comparison shows the numbers, and the Iridium providers in our directory (22 companies) are the ones that supply and activate Certus terminals.
Watch this if
You are specifying connectivity for a vessel, an aircraft or remote assets and need to explain to a budget holder why an L-band service is still on the bill next to Starlink.
Go further
Definitions: Iridium, maritime satellite connectivity, Cospas-Sarsat, satellite IoT. Directories: Iridium providers, maritime satellite providers, aviation satellite providers. Video: how Iridium and Globalstar changed the world.
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