Inmarsat's Global Xpress ground network completed

Inmarsat has completed construction of the final four satellite access stations (SAS) for its Global Xpress (GX) fleet.

The company says this represents a significant milestone in the rollout of GX, a global high-speed broadband Ka-band network, which is scheduled for global commercial service introduction early in the second half of 2015.

GX will deliver high-throughput broadband connectivity on land, at sea and in the air, provided by a single operator with seamless access anywhere in the world.

It will also offer what Inmarsat says is the only worldwide commercial satellite network that is interoperable with government military satellite communications (MILSATCOM) Ka-band systems.

The new GX stations are located in Lino Lakes in Minnesota, USA; Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada; with two sites near Auckland, New Zealand. Two further stations - in Fucino, Italy and Nemea, Greece - are already operational.

All six GX SAS will act as gateways between the broadband traffic routed via the three Inmarsat-5 (I-5) satellites and terrestrial fixed networks.

Each SAS delivers full ground segment redundancy for GX services, delivering resiliency, reliability and availability, for example at times of adverse weather, and offering a powerful differentiator to traditional regional Ku-band networks.

“This is an important milestone as we continue to move full speed ahead with the GX program,” said Rupert Pearce, CEO Inmarsat. “Our satellite access station locations and capabilities are designed to support the requirements of Inmarsat’s government and commercial end users.”

Government customers have been the first to deploy GX, taking advantage of the introduction of regional GX services through Inmarsat’s first Ka-band satellite - I-5 F1 - which serves Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Inmarsat says that its secure network infrastructure adheres to strict physical and Information Assurance (IA) standards, supported by a dedicated cybersecurity team.

Inmarsat has been providing commercial GX services in the Indian Ocean region since 1 July 2014. The remaining satellites are set to launch early in 2015, on course to support global commercial service introduction early in the second half of 2015.