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Satellite
& Cable
October
3, 2002
Inmarsat tops 250,000 installations worldwide
AUSTRALIA -- Inmarsat Ltd, the world's leading global
mobile satellite communications provider announced that
it has topped over 250,000 activated satellite communication
terminals worldwide. Over 50,000 of these terminals
have been activated since 2000 and a terminal purchased
by an Australian mining and exploration company brought
the tally to the quarter of a million mark. Bolnisi
Gold, an ASX-listed developer of mainly gold mining
properties recently purchased an Inmarsat global area
network (GAN) world communicator, from Inmarsat's partner
Xantic.
The
terminal is now operating from a major Bolnisi Gold
project site in Chihuahua, Mexico. While the Bolnisi
Gold team are in Chihuahua exploring property and evaluating
it for mining potential, large amounts of data about
the drilling core is sent regularly to head office in
Sydney and a senior mining consultant in Lismore, Australia.
The
evaluation team sends orders and reports via Inmarsat's
GAN satellite terminal at 64Kbps. Ken Phillips, exploration
director, Bolnisi Gold, said: "Our projects are
located in remote areas, and in many cases, phone, fax
and most definitely email facilities are almost non-existent.
The Inmarsat GAN is our prime means of communicating
with the outside world." The company also uses
two Inmarsat M terminals at its producing mine in Georgia,
in the former Soviet Union. The Inmarsat M is a briefcase-sized,
personal communicator offering telephone, fax and 2.4Kbps
data.
Philips
said: "At the Georgia site there are some limited
landline facilities providing a link between our base
and the Georgian capital Tbilisi 70 kilometers away.
This system is extremely basic, expensive, slow and
unreliable. It is limiting and we cannot count on it
for the type of sophisticated communications we require.
It is reassuring having our own communications system
that we can depend upon, courtesy of Inmarsat."
Inmarsat
Ltd's managing director Michael Butler said: "Inmarsat
prides itself on delivering reliable, innovative high-speed
mobile wireless communications solutions. This meets
the increasing demand from organizations for instant
access to real-time data, e-commerce and Internet services
from almost any point on the globe, no matter where
that is be it remote locations parts of Mexico, or central
Sydney. Whether a company's principal activity is transportation,
saving lives or mining for gold, there needs to be strong
assurance that their communications networks are dependable.
Inmarsat has over 22 years experience in meeting this
requirement for customers all over the world."
By
1995, Inmarsat had 50,000 activated terminals. By 1997,
this figure doubled to 100,000. Inmarsat edged this
up to 200,000 in 2000, and now activations have surpassed
the 250,000 mark.
Inmarsat
owns and operates a global satellite network and delivers
solutions through a distribution network of over 260
distributors and other service providers operating in
around 80 countries worldwide to end users in the maritime,
land and aeronautical sectors. It has a portfolio of
satellite solutions, including voice, fax, intranet
and Internet access and other data services. With over
22 years of experience in designing, implementing and
operating satellite networks, over 250,000 terminals
were registered to access Inmarsat's services at the
end of June 2002. Inmarsat is a subsidiary of Inmarsat
Ventures plc.
Contact
Inmarsat Ltd
Tel: 44-20-7728-1579/1256
Fax: 44-20-7728-1179
Email: dominic_cook@inmarsat.com
Web: www.inmarsat.com
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