Americas satellite extends coverage into East Pacific

Preparations for the introduction of global FleetBroadband coverage are entering their final phase following the recent entry into service of the new I-4 Americas satellite.

 

The FleetBroadband service was successfully transferred from the I-4 F2 to the I-4 Americas satellite on 7 January, extending coverage across the Eastern Pacific as far as 170 degrees West for the first time.

 

The I-4 F2 satellite is now completing the move to its new location at 25 degrees East and, in a change to the previously published schedule, is expected to re-enter service for ALL FleetBroadband users in the new coverage region from 6 February.

 

First outage
FleetBroadband users affected by the first outage caused by the repositioning of I-4 F2 will be able to access the satellite again from 16:00 UTC on 6 February.

 

At this time, the FleetBroadband service will also be transferred from the I-4 F1 satellite serving the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) to the I-4 F2 satellite.

 

The I-4 F1 will immediately begin its move to 143.5 degrees East, causing a 19-day outage for some FleetBroadband and FleetPhone users in the Asia-Pacific region.

 

Earlier time
In another change to the schedule, users of the Inmarsat FleetPhone service transfers from the I-4 F1 to I-4 F2 from the earlier time of 08:00 UTC on 6 February.

 

Both FleetBroadband and FleetPhone will be restored on the I-4 F1 on 24 February, at the currently scheduled time of 18:00 UTC.

 

No other Inmarsat maritime services are affected by the repositioning, apart from users of Fleet and Mini-M spot beam services in the Atlantic Ocean Region West (AOR-W).

 

Spot beam coverage
These services have now been transferred back from the I-4 F2 to an Inmarsat-3 (I-3) satellite. As a result, there will be reduced spot beam coverage in this region, but Inmarsat will make best commercial efforts to increase the I-3 spot beam coverage so that it exceeds the original I-3 coverage.