[Satellite TODAY Insider 11-09-10] Inmarsat’s IsatPhone Pro handset has been making steady progress in the handheld market since its commercial launch in June, Inmarsat CEO Andy Sukawaty said Nov. 8 during a conference call following the release of the company’s 2010 third quarter financial results.
    While Sukawaty said that IsatPhone Pro’s business numbers would not be released until the end of the year, he assured investors that Inmarsat has “no concerns” over its early performance and is seeing “good activation rates from its handheld business.” Sukawaty added that Inmarsat received a backlog of orders for its handheld service but was slightly impacted by a worldwide component shortage at the time the service was launched.
    The operator continued its streak of strong performances in the 2010 third quarter, with overall revenues increasing over 18 percent over its results from the same period in 2009 and profits before tax reaching $105.4 million ¬— a year-over-year growth of about 40 percent.
Inmarsat saw its maritime voice revenues fall 5 percent from 2009 to $24.5 million. The operator also struggled in its land mobile business, generating revenues of $36 million — a 7.2 percent decrease compared to the same stage last year.
    Over the past six months, the operator has been busy with the acquisitions of Segovia and Stratos, its entrance into the handheld market, and its Global Xpress Ka-band initiative, which will see it launch three Ka-band satellites manufactured by Boeing to start providing services in 2014. The operator believes Global Xpress will cater to a potential $1.4 billion incremental market for VSAT services.
    Sukawaty said everything is on track for the Inmarsat-5 satellites, and there is “no change” in terms of the timescale for the project. Sukawaty also spoke about potential financing for the Global Xpress Ka-band project and said discussions with the U.S. Export Import Bank were going well. “Such discussions do take time, but we’re confident that there will be positive news on this in the next few months. … Inmarsat is not dependent on [the bank] to finance this project, but such financing is attractive to us and we’re hopeful we can close a deal.”

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