Hughes Network Systems has announced that its new Hughes 9502 BGAN M2M (machine-to-machine) terminal has been fully Type Approved by Inmarsat and commercial shipments have begun. Hughes, a major provider of M2M satellite solutions, was selected by Inmarsat to develop the new 9502 terminal for its global BGAN service.

Building on the success of the 9201-M2M product, the Hughes 9502 M2M terminal delivers affordable, end-to-end IP data connectivity for a wide range of industry sectors, such as environmental monitoring for weather instruments, tsunami warning systems and seismic data collection; utility smart grid applications including pipeline/compressor monitoring, well site automation and IP-camera surveillance; and satellite back-up for terrestrial fixed and wireless primary site communications.

"Hughes is proud to deliver another Type Approved terminal to the BGAN marketplace," said Graham Avis, vice president of Hughes San Diego.

"Thanks to close cooperation with the Inmarsat team and a worldwide group of beta test customers, this solution is completely ready for prime time in the most demanding of M2M applications that require high availability communications from unattended sites."

The Hughes 9502 BGAN M2M terminal is designed for self-contained, reliable operation in even the most remote locations and boasts exceptional low power consumption for "off-the-grid" sites that require solar/battery power.

Exclusive BGAN airtime price plans are being offered which are tailor-made for the SCADA/M2M market.

Additionally, there are no minimum airtime connection charges and the billing increment is only 1 KByte, yielding low usage cost and significant savings to the customer.