Inmarsat partners complete Factory Acceptance and Over The Air Testing for land GX terminals

16 September 2014

Inmarsat, onfirmed that its technology partners Paradigm Communications and Skyware Technologies have successfully completed Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) and Over The Air Testing (OTAT) of their Global Xpress^® (GX) terminals.  Operating in the Ka-band, the Paradigm and Skyware terminals are designed for enterprise and government users, ranging from civil government and defence forces to banking and finance, and NGOs.  Successful completion of FAT and OTAT allows both manufacturers to complete actions for final Type Approval.

This significant milestone has been reached just two months after the first satellite (Inmarsat-5 F1) in Inmarsat’s game-changing GX constellation achieved commercial service introduction (CSI), in July 2014. The fleet of three GX satellites, currently scheduled to be fully deployed by the end of the first half of 2015, will create the world’s first globally available Ka-band, mobile high-speed broadband satellite network, providing high-throughput services on land, at sea and in the air. 

For Paradigm Communications, the Connect 70, Connect 100 and Connect 180 fixed VSAT terminals have all completed FAT and OTAT.  Paradigm’s integrated GX core module solution, called the Paradigm Interface Module (PIM), has also been approved, enabling it to be paired with any GX-compliant Ka-band terminal.   

For Skyware Technologies, the ATOM 65 lightweight flyaway terminal and SKY 98 and SKY 180 fixed terminals have successfully completed FAT and OTAT. These include the Skyware Technologies flexible 5-watt Ka transceiver which is currently the only approved RF transceiver for GX. 

“Global Xpress is perhaps the most ambitious and exciting programme in Inmarsat’s history and the fact that we have passed these significant milestones on schedule is down to the immense dedication and skill of both Inmarsat’s GX team and our partners,” said David Schoen, Vice President, Product and Service Development at Inmarsat.  “The successful testing demonstrates yet another substantial step forward in the journey towards worldwide commercial service introduction of GX.  We look forward to the equally successful completion of the final phases of testing.” 

Jon Godfrey, General Manager of Paradigm Communications, said: “Over two years of design and development by Paradigm’s talented hardware and software teams have allowed Paradigm to exceed Inmarsat’s expectations of their design and feature requirements. Inmarsat’s customers will be pleased with the ease of Connect Terminal installation, made simple by the powerful features of the PIM, which can also be easily paired with other GX-compliant Ka-band antenna systems”. 

David Geen, Vice President Tactical Ground Systems, Skyware Technologies, said: “We are pleased to have passed this important milestone in the launch of our ATOM and SKY terminals for Global Xpress. We will soon be adding the ATOM 99 and ATOM 65 Auto to the GX portfolio. It is our goal to deliver high-value terminal solutions to customers with demanding requirements for ruggedness, reliability and ease of use. Skyware Technologies’ customers benefit from our long history in Ka frequency platform design and this has resulted in a terminal line-up that we are proud to deliver to them.” 

The full constellation of three Inmarsat-5 satellites is currently scheduled to be fully deployed and commercially available by the first half of 2015, offering the world’s first seamless, global, end to end, high-quality mobile broadband service.  GX is a US$1.6bn investment programme by Inmarsat to deliver the next generation of high-throughput commercial communication satellites.