Iridium® Satellite today announced the commercial rollout of its new satellite fax solution, which will permit users to send and receive documents over the Iridium network from a standard Group 3 fax machine. 

Iridium's new low-cost fax adapter automatically stores and buffers fax messages before sending, ensuring reliable transmission through the Iridium gateway. The unit's self-repairing feature eliminates the need to resend faxes and manually monitor transmissions. The fax device provides more than one MB of memory for buffering large faxes and operates at high resolution to ensure that character-based scripts are accurately transmitted.

The fax service is primarily aimed at the maritime and aeronautical markets, according to Greg Ewert, executive vice president of Iridium Satellite.

"There is considerable demand for satellite fax service in the commercial fishing and shipping sectors to send catch reports, repair manuals, instructions, manifests, declarations and accounting reports between ship and shore," Ewert said. "The Iridium fax service will also be valuable for the general aviation sector – especially for small- and mid-range business jets."

The Iridium fax adapter is ruggedized for reliable operation under extreme environmental conditions. Designed to function with most popular Group 3 fax models, it can easily be retrofitted to most installed ship and aircraft Iridium terminals.

Iridium will market the fax service through its international network of service providers, who will offer it to customers at a single, low price-per-minute rate similar to Iridium's existing data service pricing.