AERO-SATCOM agreement with Inmarsat’s Global Government Business Unit

6 December 2016: AERO-SATCOM, the joint venture (JV) between Eclipse and NSSLGlobal, today signed an agreement with Inmarsat’s Global Government business unit which sees the JV appointed as Global Xpress (GX) Value Added Reseller (VAR) for the Government Aero market*. With Swift Broadband and Swift 64 distribution agreements previously signed, this latest development allows AERO-SATCOM to work alongside local partners to offer Inmarsat’s high performance Ka-band services. AERO-SATCOM’s first provisioning of aeronautical GX services will be through a local government-focused Inmarsat Service Provider for a fleet of Europe-based head of state aircraft.

The head of state aircraft retrofit begins in December with the service expected to be fully operational from February 2017. AERO-SATCOM will add value to the core GX service by supporting the delivery of onboard solutions developed by Eclipse that provide on-board bandwidth management, bandwidth optimisation and credit card payments for passenger internet access.

Shaun Flanagan, Sales Director, AERO-SATCOM said: “By using its globally available high throughput end-to-end satellite network, Inmarsat’s aeronautical GX Ka-band service brings higher levels of connectivity to aircraft, enabling video conferencing, seamless web browsing, live video streaming and file downloads. However, the aero global government market rarely wants a ‘standard’ package and values the expertise of AERO-SATCOM to add value through custom technologies that help them get the most from their data. Our ability to access a satcom laboratory installation of the aeronautical satcom system that supports Global Xpress gives AERO-SATCOM a big advantage in terms of better supporting customer demonstrations and developing these kind of custom-specific applications.”

Andy Start, President, Inmarsat Global Government, said: “For head of state aviation customers, the aeronautical GX service transforms the in-flight experience by offering a global on-board connectivity service that is secure, reliable and high-speed. AERO-SATCOM, with its perfect blend of experience, expertise and resources, is a key Value Added Retailer for the Inmarsat Global Government team and plays an important role in helping us roll out GX to this highly-specialised market.”

AERO-SATCOM meets the market need for an all-round aeronautical satellite communications company that bridges the gap between two complex industries; the Governmental Aircraft industry and government sector Mobile Satellite Services (MSS). The AERO-SATCOM team has the specialist skills required to meet all the technical, regulatory and commercial aspects of projects when customer requirements develop where these two industries overlap. AERO-SATCOM’s business model is based on creating strong partnerships with companies that can leverage its technical and regulatory skills with exposure to their local government markets.