Iridium Extends its Satellite AxcessPoint Service to iOS

While most of us like to be able to check our e-mail from pretty much anywhere, let's face it...there are still spots where you're unlikely to find a Wifi connection or a good signal for your smartphone. This problem can be solved, of course, with satellite company Iridium Communications' AxcessPoint service, which uses your satellite phone to create a WiFi wherever you might happen to be: atop Mount Everest, in the Amazon jungle or at your grandmother's home in that dead zone at the bottom of a small hill.

Unless you happened to be an Apple iOS user, of course. Until now.

Iridium announced yesterday that its AxcessPoint Mail & Web App is now available for Apple's popular operating system. This means that it's now possible for devices that use iOS, such as the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, to connect over Iridium's satellite communications network, according to Engadget.

So you can browse with your iPhone no matter where you are. (Scratch that, if you're on the moon, you still may be out of luck.) Back in September, Iridium announced AxcessPoint Wi-Fi hotspot with BlackBerry support, as well as with apps for Mac and Windows laptops. With today's app rollout, says the company, Iridium continues to expand the universe of smartphones that can now communicate on 90 percent of the planet not covered by traditional wireless networks.“Iridium AxcessPoint Mail & Web now provides a reliable e-mail and Internet connection anywhere in the world for the more than 250 million Apple iOS device users,” said Joel Thompson, VP of product management for Iridium. “This first-of-its-kind capability embodies our Iridium Force vision – Iridium's commitment to extending handheld connectivity in places never before possible and through devices customers already own. More and more we see enterprise, government and NGO organizations requiring connectivity for their employees regardless of their location on the planet.”

First, however, you'll need to splash out on that Iridium Extreme or Iridium 9555 satellite phone. The AxcessPoint Mail & Web service is used heavily by organizations that operate in remote parts of the world, such as scientific expeditions or organizations that work in the developing world.