Dubai: Inmarsat, the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services, yesterday said it has agreed a contract with Boeing for the delivery of three 702HP Ka-band satellites.

The Inmarsat-5 constellation will enable Inmarsat to offer a global highspeed mobile broadband service.

"With operations expected to start in 2014, Inmarsat-5 will support a next generation global service, Global Xpress, which will target a $1.4-billion (Dh5.15 billion) incremental market opportunity in VSAT [very short aperture telecommunication] services. Global Xpress will address the established, growing markets for VSAT services in the Maritime, Energy and government sectors, with further growth potential in developing markets such as the Aeronautical sector," the company said in a statement.

Global Xpress will deliver seamless global coverage and unprecedented mobile broadband with speeds up to 50mbps, to customer terminals from antennae 20-60cm in size.

Inmarsat will target $500 million of annual Ka-band revenues five years after global service launch. Under a separate arrangement, Boeing has agreed to become a distribution partner for both Inmarsat's Ka- and L-band services and has pre-committed to capacity purchases representing more than 10 per cent of Inmarsat's target Ka-band revenues in the first five years after global service launch.

Inmarsat estimates that the total cost to Inmarsat-5 and Global Xpress will be $1.2 billion over 4.5 years, incorporating the fixed cost of the satellites, as well as the cost of additional ground network infrastructure, product development, launch services and insurance.

Andrew Sukawaty, Chairman and CEO of Inmarsat, said: "This is a new investment for new growth. With the Global Xpress network, we will be the first operator to offer global mobile broadband coverage, offering unparalleled speeds and bandwidth to customers in remote locations around the world.

Furthermore, as a result of our investment in Inmarsat-5, we will move to a more gradual replacement of our L-band network, resulting in a deferment of more than $500 million of our previously planned replacement expenditure over the next 11 years." he said.

Inmarsat had a total revenue of $1.04 billion with an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and am ortisation of $594.2 million.