NxtMail Over Iridium Supports BlackBerry®, iPhone® and PDA E-Mail and Web Browsing

International Communications Group (ICG) announced today that it has revolutionized on-board communications for business aircraft by launching NxtMail, a new global E-Mail over Iridium service. The service, which utilizes ICG’s NxtMail Server, permits users with WiFi-enabled BlackBerry® smartphones, iPhone™ mobile devices and selected Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) to access E-mail and Mobile Web browsing services anywhere in the world by simply activating the WiFi feature of their devices. The compact NxtMail server will service up to 10 users at a time and is currently available at a fraction of the cost of broadband services.

“NxtMail Over Iridium sets a whole new standard for on-board mobile communications,” noted Jeff Saucedo, vice president of product sales. “It provides global coverage without the limitations inherent to regional systems that rely on radio towers or other services that use geosynchronous Satcom systems. It allows users to walk out of the office and onto the airplane without experiencing an interruption in on-line services. For the first time, an affordable and convenient E-Mail service is available to operators of virtually any size and model of business aircraft, not just traditional heavy iron operators,” he added.

Though the new service will operate with any model of ICG NxtLink Iridium Communications System, optimum performance is obtained from an ICG multi-channel Nxtlink system. NxtMail supports connections to BlackBerry® Internet Service (BIS), BlackBerry® Enterprise Server (BES) and most other popular E-mail networks such as Webmail, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Push E-Mail, MS Exchange Server ActiveSync, Hotmail and Gmail. Additionally, it also supports Blackberry PIN device-to-device messaging.

NxtMail Over Iridium can operate concurrently with other on-board data services such as Airshow updates and Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs), too. WiFi capable mobile digital devices are automatically assigned an Internet Provider (IP) address by the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server to provide immediate access to the system without user intervention or set-up beyond what is required for any conventional WiFi network.

NxtMail can be configured to operate in various modes to optimize E-Mail services tailored to an operator’s customary requirements or anticipated demand. The automatic link control and intelligent channel management provide optimal performance at an economical cost. “The capabilities and versatility that NxtMail Over Iridium offers even extends to E-mails with attachments,” Saucedo explained. Due to the limited bandwidth of an Iridium channel, NxtMail operates best with text based E-Mail or small attachments. However, large E-mail attachments sent in the Ground to Air direction can be delivered via printable fax transmissions to an onboard fax machine thanks to a special service offered by the NxtLink internal fax server. The same E-mail originated message can also be sent as a broadcast to multiple aircraft. In the Air to Ground direction, users have the ability to communicate an average business size e-mail,” he pointed out.