Navarino is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement with Inmarsat to become a Value Added Reseller  (VAR) of Global Xpress ® for the maritime market.

Global Xpress will be launched in 2013, with full global coverage available by late 2014. It will offer downlink speeds of up to 50Mbps, and up to 5Mbps over the uplink, from compact user terminals. With superior engineering and quality, and backed by the L-band resilience of FleetBroadband, the Global Xpress solution will exceed the levels of service offered by existing broadband VSAT services. Global Xpress will offer significantly better throughput, at prices comparable with today’s slower VSAT services. Global Xpress will be available globally through smaller antennas than today’s standard VSAT Ku antennas. This will enable many more ships to take advantage of the superior speeds and service. As the need for better crew benefits grows, Global Xpress will be ideally placed to provide a high-quality user experience for browsing, voice and media services. In addition, integrating the ship into the corporate office as a part of the enterprise will become reality.

Navarino CEO Dimitris Tsikopoulos said: “Global Xpress is the best response to the increasing need for data-driven and cost-effective communications at sea, offering the shipping industry unprecedented data speeds and global coverage.  Greece has the largest single ownership of ocean-going vessels, with around 17% of the world’s ship owners based here. Our customers have the highest bandwidth requirements and Global Xpress with its combination of a new super-fast Ka-band satellite network and the existing FleetBroadband service will deliver a quality, global service with the utmost reliability. The deployment of Global Xpress will herald a revolution in maritime communications and will have a significant impact on how the shipping industry can improve its profitability through achieving long term cost efficiencies.”

Frank Coles, President of Inmarsat Maritime added “Navarino is a highly specialised integrator, reseller and developer of maritime communications services.  Its worldwide installation and support capabilities will certainly aid the swift deployment of Global Xpress amongst their customers in both Europe and Asia, and we are delighted to recognise them as the first Global Xpress VAR in Greece. I believe Navarino is well positioned to offer the next generation of Inmarsat services to its current and future customers.”