Estonian President manages state affairs from Antarctica using Iridium Certus

Estonian President, Kersti Kaljulaid, signed digital legally binding documents from Antarctica using Iridium Certus^®, the weather resilient specialty satellite broadband service.

The five day expedition to Antarctica in January was to commemorate the 200-year anniversary of its discovery by Estonian born Admiral Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen.

President Kaljulaid’s visit to the continent also focused on increasing awareness of the impacts of climate change and demonstrating the opportunities offered by embracing a digital society and eGovernance. The movement of the President’s office to Antarctica to carry out state affairs was to demonstrate just what possibilities exist to change the way people work.

The President used an Iridium Certus terminal from Thales to stay connected and lead the country from one of the most remote areas on the planet.

Iridium CEO, Matt Desch said via Twitter: “Not hard to see why Estonia is one of the leading digital communications societies when the President is casually doing state business from the bottom of the world.”

The President compared both digital society and climate change as not recognizing national borders. She emphasized that the polar areas are particularly sensitive to changes in our climate, and that all the countries of the world must find solutions together. She says: “Being a digital society means geography doesn’t matter anymore – we can do business, run the country and communicate with our close ones wherever we are in the world.”