The company’s services are scheduled for launch in early 2009, when it will operate in a 2.00 GHz frequency band, the S-band, reserved for the exclusive use of satellite and terrestrial mobile services. The S-band sits alongside UMTS frequencies that are already used across Europe for 3G terrestrial services.
The Dublin headquarters will handle all corporate responsibilities for Europe including regulatory support, sales and marketing, brand awareness, finance, and compliance and legal issues. It will identify new business opportunities, and negotiate and manage partnerships with broadcasters, content developers, network operators and handset manufacturers.
Steve Maine, Solaris Mobile CEO, said: “This venture is of major strategic importance to our parent companies as it ensures a first mover advantage in Europe for satellite broadcast services to the mobile industry. We assessed several possibilities but decided that Dublin would deliver this project to our tight deadlines and with access to the right resources and communication lines”