Space

Cobham and Inmarsat to deliver L-band ground infrastructure

Posted 27 February 2019

Cobham SATCOM has announced an agreement with Inmarsat that covers development and supply of new generation L-band radio access network ground segment systems for Inmarsat’s I-6 satellites – underpinning the L-band ground infrastructure for I-6 – currently set for first launch in 2020.

Courtesy Cobham

Cobham SATCOM’s next generation radio access network (RAN) leverages scalable technologies to deliver a more flexible, digital system, enabling Inmarsat customers to keep pace with market requirements.

The I-6 satellite network is set to be the world’s most advanced L-band satellite constellation. The network will extend Inmarsat’s market-leading L-band BGAN offering, delivering additional capacity while enabling future capabilities from advanced global safety services and low cost mobile solutions, to Internet of Things (IoT) applications and beyond.

This initiative continues a 30-year plus partnership between Cobham SATCOM and Inmarsat extending across land, maritime, space, and aviation. In addition to producing market-leading user terminals in all categories, Cobham SATCOM has developed and maintained the L-band radio access network and constructed Inmarsat Land Earth Stations in 17 countries since 1990.

Paul Kahn, President of Communications and Connectivity at Cobham, commented: “This next chapter in our partnership with Inmarsat builds upon our track record of mutual success and strengthens Cobham SATCOM’s position as a global market leader in satellite ground infrastructure. Both Cobham and Inmarsat share the vision and mission of improving connectivity for users and their devices everywhere. By ensuring global availability of reliable safety services we can help save hundreds of lives every year.”

Peter Hadinger, CTO, Inmarsat, said: “Inmarsat-6 extends Inmarsat’s commitment to our L-band customers through the 2030s and allows us to expand the capabilities of this unique communications architecture to new and improved services. Securing the highest performing and most innovative hardware for Inmarsat-6 has been a critical focus for us and we are pleased that the evaluation showed that our long-term partner Cobham SATCOM could meet our rigorous specifications and continue to provide us with a sustainable competitive advantage.”