Evolution of INMARSAT systems and applications: The land mobile experience

Inmarsat has provided mobile satellite communication services for land mobile applications for well over a decade. Having started with the Inmarsat-A voice and telex system, Inmarsat is committed to the evolution of services towards a global personal, handheld satellite communicator. Over the years, users have benefitted from the evolution of technologies, increased user friendliness and portability of terminals and ever decreasing cost of operations. This paper describes the various present systems, their characteristics and applications, and outlines their contributions in the evolution towards the personal global communicator.