Story ID: 440
Inmarsat Rolling Out Evolution Satcom Upgrades
By: Matt Thurber
Caption: Inmarsat's JX Evolution satcom brings faster speeds to airborne connectivity customers with no change to service plans.
Word Count: 325
With more than 1,250 business aircraft equipped with Inmarsat’s Jet ConneX broadband airborne connectivity system, the satellite network provider (Booth 3810) has been expanding its service options under the JX Evolution program. The first product under the JX Evolution banner is JX Edge, which went live earlier this month.

JX Edge offers “greater performance, speeds, and value for money,” according to Inmarsat. “We recognize customers are doing a lot more [online],” said Kai Tang, Inmarsat head of business aviation, and this includes bandwidth-heavy video conference meetings, “which is quite demanding on forward and return links.” To improve the customer experience, Inmarsat effectively doubled the return or uplink speed, he added, “to allow them to have a much better experience using video conference capabilities.” These improvements were done without changing customers’ connectivity plans.

“Evolution is thinking about what’s important to people,” said Tang. “It’s not always just about higher speeds. People always like to focus on speed, but Inmarsat likes to focus on the customer experience.”

This week at NBAA-BACE 2022, Inmarsat is highlighting JX Edge and Evolution service upgrades as well as second-generation airborne terminal options from companies such as Satcom Direct and Orbit Communication Systems (Booth 4016). These will join Honeywell’s JetWave terminal, offering customers more choices for business jet satcom installations.

JX Evolution continues improving as Inmarsat expands its satcom network from the current five Ka-band satellites ins geostationary orbit to 12 during the next five years. Some of the additional satellites will fill gaps over polar regions.

In 2023, Inmarsat expects to unveil SwiftJet, which will deliver up to six times faster service on its SwiftBroadband L-band satcom network. Inmarsat partnered with Honeywell to develop upgrades to SwiftBroadband airborne terminals using existing antennas for SwiftJet. “It’s a large boost to their internet connectivity with a minimally invasive upgrade,” Tang said. SwiftBroadband also has the advantage of providing approved safety service satcom.