BSNL, a partner of Inmarsat, has received the necessary licences to deliver Inmarsat’s Global Xpress (GX) Ka-band mobile broadband services in India. Under BSNL’s Inflight and Maritime Connectivity (IFMC) licence from India’s Department of Telecommunications, GX will be available to Indian customers across the government, aviation and maritime sectors.
The announcement means that India-based airlines such as Vistara, Air India, SpiceJet and IndiGo, will be able to deploy GX for inflight connectivity within India and throughout the world. According to Inmarsat there will be a phased introduction of services for customers and partners.
In other Inmarsat news, the company is launching a further seven GX satellites, including its next-generation GX satellites, over the coming three years, each of which will add more capacity into a single region than the first four satellites combined. The GX gateway for India is located in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.
BSNL’s chairman and managing director, P.K. Purwar said, “All of us at BSNL appreciate the commitment to excellence shown by the Indian Government as we have worked on approvals to deliver this service to the country. Equally, we thank our partner Inmarsat for their spirit of collaboration in reaching today’s milestone to help power forward economic development in India through higher-quality connectivity for our customers.”
Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director of SpiceJet added, “We are delighted that Global Xpress, the world-leading passenger inflight connectivity service, is now coming to India. We are looking forward to offering this ground-breaking connectivity service to our passengers later this year, when we introduce our new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. It will enable our customers to remain connected in the air as they do on the ground.”