Rise in sales for Inmarsat mobile

“We are delighted to have reached this milestone,” said Michael Butler, Managing Director, Inmarsat Ltd. “Sales of mini-M satellite phones have grown rapidly since the launch of the service in 1997, and today it is the

most popular solution in our Instant Communication portfolio, enabling people to communicate via voice, fax or email anywhere in the world.”

Mini-M offers a complete range of models from portable, to maritime, to vehicular and even for corporate jets with tracking antenna. This year Inmarsat has also launched a payphone version.

The portable mini-M terminal is lightweight, fully portable and provides 98 per cent land mass coverage. The maritime mini-M offers coverage in all major shipping routes. In all variants, mini-M has proved itself a valuable communications link for anyone operating beyond the reach of traditional terrestrial networks or when those networks don’t offer the quality or level of service required to make voice or data calls. It also offers value for money when compared with many GSM roaming rates , and can be less than half the cost of hotel rates.

The payphone solution has become increasingly important, which offers seafarers, governments, mining, energy and construction sites, a cost effective voice service for ‘communities’ operating outside the reach of traditional communication services or where that service is not reliable enough for email, fax and voice calls. In India, for example, a number of villages where electricity and telecoms infrastructure access are at premium, mini-Ms, often with a payphone, are successfully used to address the gap in the provision of rural public telephony

Companies like Roc Oil of Australia use mini-M for their oil exploration teams for email, fax and voice operating in diverse areas as Australia,

Senegal, the UK and Mongolia. Graham Ryrie, IT and graphics manager at Roc Oil, Sydney explains: “We found the mini-M to be extremely useful as it is a self-contained communications system. Easily portable and running from batteries, it provided a useful additional safety measure and communications out in the field.”Inmarsat mini-M phones can be used in over 150 countries worldwide and, in addition, versions are in use for the aeronautical and maritime markets.

“Inmarsat has seen many rivals enter and leave the mobile satellite services market,” said Butler. “But despite all the hype and the tall claims, most users recognise that if they want reliability, coverage and availability, nothing tops Inmarsat.”