The BGAN Explorer 500 is tiny! That is the first thing that struck me when I unpacked it. In fact it is only about half the size of my MacBook Pro. At 21cm by 21 cm and weighing in at 1.3kg it is truly portable.

For those who might not be aware BGAN stands for Broadband Global Area Network. Essentially it allows Internet and telephone connections via an INMARSAT satellite. The portability of this type of equipment makes it popular amongst journalists, disaster response worker, soldiers, and others working in remote areas or areas where the communications infrastructure has been destroyed.




The Explorer 500 package I received included the following:

• EXPLORER 500 BGAN terminal
  • Battery
  • AC/DC power cable
  • Vehicle accessory power adaptor cable
  • Bluetooth handset
  • Handset charging cable
  • CAT-5 LAN cable
  • USB cable
  • CD-ROMs with software and manual
  • “Quick Guide” and “Getting Started” pamphlets
  

You can connect your laptop to the terminal via USB, Ethernet, or Bluetooth. There are two power jacks, one to charge the terminal itself and one to charge the Bluetooth handset. You can also plug in a regular landline telephone if need be.

My one small quibble with the hardware is with the power cable for charging the USB handset. The terminal end seems quite delicate. I foresee it becoming easily clogged with dust or simply broken off with repeated use.

Software Setup

BGAN LaunchPad software for PCs (Windows XP) is included with the system. Despite the fact that some of the documentation suggests that it is PC only I was able to find a Mac OS X version (and an update) on a hand labelled CD. The documentation also suggests that the system is LINUX compatible but I have no way of testing this so we’ll just have to take their word for it.

Installing the OS X software was a little fiddly. The installer is very Windows like and installed bits and pieces all over the place. Unfortunately where the installer said it was going to install things was not where they were actually installed. When I ran the updater it generated an error that required me to find and open the install log. Come on! If I wanted to do that kind of stuff I’d buy a PC! Luckily the LaunchPad software seems to work fine despite the reported error.

I tried to test the system earlier today without success. Unfortunately the area around my office is cluttered with buildings and trees,not to mention nervous security forces. I wasn't able to get a good line of sight to the satellite so I’ll post more once I suitable open area and really put the system through its paces.

Tags: Tools, Technology, BGAN, Communications