Inmarsat Partners with Aircell on Global Xpress

Inmarsat Global Xpress announced today it had named Aircell as a distribution partner for Inmarsat's airborne broadband service for business aviation. The two companies will begin in-flight testing of the Global Xpress aeronautical services after the launch of the first Inmarsat-5 satellite, which is scheduled for mid-2013, with regional service to start later that year and worldwide coverage in 2014. Global Xpress, which will operate on a global Ka-band, is expected to offer data transmission speeds up to 50 megabits per second.