Inmarsat, VSee Labs and San Diego State University Team to Arm Refugee Camps with Connectivity via BGAN

Inmarsat (LSE:ISAT), the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services, today announced their collaboration with VSee Labs and San Diego State University (SDSU) to mark the observance of World Refugee Day 2010.

Today, VSee Labs will be providing live video feeds from Africa, South America and the Middle East using the global connectivity provided by Inmarsat’s Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN). The feeds will link United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC) António Guterres in Syria and UNHRC field teams with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a live audience hosted by the State Department in Washington, D.C. In addition, UNHRC goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie will address the group from northern Ecuador, while SDSU links refugee camps from the Mexicali earthquake and other sites of recent disasters to government and NGO officials in Mexico and the US.

"BGAN solutions allow isolated field teams to enjoy state-of-the art voice and data connectivity anywhere in the world,” said Jack Deasy, Director, Civil Programs, Inmarsat Government Services, Inc. "Inmarsat is honored to support the UNHRC in drawing attention to the needs of these vulnerable communities.”

Refugee camps are often isolated physically and lack modern communications infrastructure. To raise awareness of refugee issues for World Refugee Day, VSee Labs solved this problem with BGAN terminals, creating Wi-Fi hubs to connect each site to the World Wide Web over the Inmarsat satellite constellation. This Internet connection allows VSee software, installed on off-the-shelf laptop computers, to ink the remote locations together in a multi-party video call. The solution is cost-effective -- VSee’s software requires very little bandwidth and the solution requires minimal training or equipment. Everything necessary to conduct the demonstration fit in a single backpack and took less than five minutes to set up and get online.

Milton Chen, CEO of VSee Labs, noted "video collaboration is often hard to set up and insecure. VSee makes secure video collaboration as simple as email.”

The World Refugee Day event at the State Department will be streamed live at www.unhcr.org/wrd2010. For a comprehensive calendar of activities, see www.unrefugees.org.

About Inmarsat

Inmarsat plc (LSE: ISAT) is the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services. Since 1979, Inmarsat has been providing reliable voice and high-speed data communications to governments, enterprises and other organizations, with a range of services that can be used on land, at sea or in the air. The company's services are delivered through a global network of more than 400 distribution partners and service providers operating in 100 countries. For the year ended 31 December 2009, Inmarsat plc had total revenue of US$1,038.1 million (2008: US$996.7 million) with an EBITDA of US$594.2 million (2008: US$531.2 million). For more information, please visit www.inmarsat.com.