Inmarsat successfully launches new satellite

Latest launch will extend the reach of global mobile broadband service

Rosalie Marshall, Computing 19 Aug 2008

Telecommunications provider Inmarsat will soon be able to offer mobile broadband services globally with the addition of a new satellite.

The launch of Inmarsat’s third satellite took place yesterday but its successful decoupling from the spacecraft into space was announced early this morning - a satellite needs to be launched a particular distance from the Earth at the right speed in order to ensure it does not get lost.

The satellite will supply Inmarsat’s broadband services to countries in the Pacific including North America, Alaska, Western Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Customers can expect the mobile telecom services from the start of next year, according to Inmarsat’s vice president of external affairs, Chris McLaughlin.

“The Imarsat-4s are the world’s most sophisticated commercial network for mobile voice and data services, and the successful launch of the third 1-4 allows us to complete the global coverage for our broadband services,” said Inmarsat chief executive Andrew Sukawaty.

Inmarsat, founded in 1976, provides telephony and data services via special terminals to organisations such as aid agencies, governments and the media to allow them to communicate when they do not have access to a reliable terrestrial network.

The company uses geostationary orbit to position its satellites, whereby satellites revolve around the earth at a constant speed once a day over the equator.

“This orbit allows Inmarsat to provide global broadband coverage with just three satellites,” said McLaughlin.

The new broadband services available in the Pacific region will be useful to ships travelling one of the world’s most important trade routes between America and China, said McLaughlin. Inmarsat currently services 60 per cent of the world’s ships at sea, he said.

The satellite was launched on a Proton Breeze M rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Inmarsat’s tracking station in Italy tracked the satellite while it was still coupled with the spacecraft.

Now the spacecraft has been de-coupled it will take around 10 days for its solar panels to unfold to ensure the satellite does not freeze, said McLaughlin.

The dish at the top of the satellite will also have to unfurl to allow the satellite to send and receive messages. Once the satellite is ready to operate, Inmarsat will carry out a month of testing and then announce new services in the new year.

Current customers dependent on the broadband services Inmarsat supplies include media agencies, such as CNN and BBC, which use the network to send stories from around the world.

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