Inmarsat Predicts BGAN Service Will Generate $200 Million a Year

Mobile satellite services operator Inmarsat of London forecasts that its new BGAN mobile-broadband service, offering up to nearly 500 kilobits per second of transmission speeds to laptop-size terminals, will generate $200 million in annual revenues by 2010, Inmarsat Chief Financial Officer Rick Medlock said.

BGAN, which is being introduced this year in the Americas, Europe and parts of Asia, has generated advance orders for 15,000 BGAN terminals, Medlock said. The company already is generating revenues from some 30,000 early-generation data terminals, which are generally larger and slower.

BGAN terminals are built to operate in conjunction with the two orbiting Inmarsat-4 satellites.