This quarter, Inmarsat marked the five year anniversary of its Global Xpress (GX) network. The network remains the world’s most reliable, high-speed broadband network that is owned and managed by a single operator. Since its introduction, extra redundancy and additional capacity to support high-demand growth regions has seen the launch of additional satellites, the most recent of which is the new GX5 satellite.
The GX5 is Inmarsat’s latest and most powerful satellite to date. Launched in December of 2020, it is geostationary like its counterparts and is a major addition to the service, currently providing additional capacity to the Middle East. The satellite offers double the combined capacity of the entirety of the existing GX fleet and is especially important in the aviation, governmental, and commercial maritime sectors where Inmarsat is seeing a rapid growth in customer demand within the Middle East region.
GX5 is significant as it marks the next step in Inmarsat’s technology roadmap that will see the capacity, capability, and agility of Global Xpress evolved further – both for new and existing customers – with a further seven launches planned by 2024. Five of these satellites will remain in geostationary orbit, whilst two will sit in highly elliptical orbit – which will mark the beginning of the world’s only commercial mobile broadband service in the Artic region.