Federal agencies and law enforcement won’t object to Inmarsat tak...
Federal agencies and law enforcement won’t object to Inmarsat taking over Stratos Global Communications if the FCC makes Inmarsat obey an information-access agreement it made with the U.S. government, the Justice and Homeland Security departments said. Under the agreement,…
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Inmarsat will make available to law enforcement domestic communications, any electronic communications received by, intended to be received by or stored in the account associated with a U.S.- licensed mobile earth station or transmitted through a U.S. land earth station, or routed through a U.S. point of presence to or from an Inmarsat subscriber, and subscriber and billing information. Inmarsat agreed “that the United States would suffer irreparable injury if for any reason Inmarsat failed to perform any of its obligations under this Agreement, and that monetary relief would not be an adequate remedy,” according to the document filed by the government. Inmarsat also waives any immunity it might have if the U.S. government claims it violated the agreement. This is the second time that the FCC has reviewed many of the issues involved in the Inmarsat-Stratos transaction. In 2007, the commission approved the first step in a deal involving Inmarsat, Stratos Global, Robert Franklin and Communications Investment Partners of Canada, after Inmarsat said it would finance CIP’s acquisition of Stratos (CD Dec 11/07 p1). The transaction gave Inmarsat Finance the option to buy Stratos outright when a distribution prohibition ends in April. When Inmarsat was privatized it was barred from selling directly to end users until then. Inmarsat plans to exercise the option and is asking the FCC for approval.