Inmarsat and Nera sign Ground Earth Station upgrade for aero services
11 February 2005; Inmarsat, the Total Communications Network(TM) Via Satellite, has today demonstrated a major commitment to aeronautical communications services by announcing a NOK 24 million (US$ 3.8 million) development agreement with Nera. The contract with Nera SatCom, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nera, is to develop the hardware and software required to upgrade the Ground Earth Stations (GESs) that support the Inmarsat H, H+ and I services for aeronautical users.
The GES upgrade programme will improve the capacity and efficiency of Inmarsat's classic aeronautical services, and will enable aircraft to more easily upgrade to the high-speed Swift64 or SwiftBroadband services.
"The upgrade of some of the major components within the GESs will not only ensure a continuing high quality of service for safety and commercial communications into the next decade, but will also pave the way for system improvements over the satellites," said Tony Busby, Director of Product and Service Management at Inmarsat.
Nera will be the only manufacturer able to upgrade the GES operators. Work on the development programme has already begun, and is scheduled to be completed in Q3 2006, although GESs can begin upgrading from early 2006. Once the upgrade is completed, GES operators will be able to increase their data and voice channel capacity by adding the latest generation of Nera's channel unit boards. This will allow the services to operate within the spot beams of both Inmarsat's current satellites and the forthcoming fourth-generation of satellites, the Inmarsat 4s, the first of which is being launched in March 2005.