Getting adequate network coverage for field workers is a big issue for industries that serve widely dispersed populations such as the insurance industry, energy firms and news outlets like CNN. Consider a claims adjuster in a disaster zone who needs to process the claim but is unable to access the terrestrial network.

Inmarsat now has two L-band satellites providing coverage over 85 percent of the earth's surface and 98 percent of the population and will soon launch a third to deliver total coverage.

Inmarsat's Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service can provide secure connectivity from nearly anywhere at transmission rates of 480K bit/sec. downlink and 384K bit/sec. uplink, and guaranteed steady 128K bit/sec. for streaming video. Through resellers this service can be found for about US$1 per minute, which is substantially less than the previous industry norm.

The days of suitcase satellite uplinks are long gone; today's devices are smaller and weigh less than a laptop. Some even come with Wi-Fi hotspots built in, making them convenient to share with colleagues in the field. Frank August, regional director, North America, at Inmarsat, said, "For industry and government professionals who must have a connection, BGAN from Inmarsat is the solution."

These remote, mobile workers also face the issue of VPN access back to the corporate systems. If a user is sharing a public Wi-Fi network he or she might not always have full signal, or the signal to an EVDO or EDGE network might be more reliable. Perhaps they need to send highly secure data over a private switched connection but have other data that could travel over the lower-cost public Wi-Fi.