Inmarsat has confirmed that its L-band I-4 F1 satellite, which experienced a loss of services late on Sunday 16 April after suffering a partial loss of power, has now been recovered.
“That loss of power invoked automatic procedures on the satellite that led to the suspension of services. Work continues to optimise performance and address some specific residual issues,” Inmarsat said, in a statement on 19 April.
The company had confirmed in a previous statement that maritime safety services had already successfully been transferred to a contingency satellite immediately following the incident, in line with its IMSO-approved operational process.
Following recovery of the I-4 F1 satellite, which provides L-band services for East Asia and the Pacific region, all safety services have now been restored. Similarly, FleetBroadband services are also now restored and being optimised, the company said.
The company notes that most leases have also now been restored, with those remaining being treated as “a priority” and expected to resume shortly. GSPS (satellite phone) services are still being addressed.
“Inmarsat regrets the outage and apologises to all impacted users. Many of the services currently delivered by I-4 F1 will be moved to Inmarsat’s new, high-performance I-6 F1 satellite in the coming months as Inmarsat’s investment in new and additional satellites continues,” the company added.
The I-4 F1 satellite, operating in L-band, was launched in 2005, the first satellite in the constellation that would begin the FleetBroadband era at Inmarsat. The company would move on to introduce its Ka-band Global Xpress network with the I-5 generation, before announcing plans to follow a dual-payload strategy for the design of its I-6 satellites, to offer both L-band and Ka-band.
I-6 F1, the first of the I-6 satellites, was launched in December 2021, followed by the I-6 F2 in February 2023. Inmarsat has already announced plans to begin commercial services on I-6 F1 in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region from Q2 this year after the completion of in-orbit testing in the second half of 2022.
Story edited at 18.10 on 19/4/2023 with details from updated statement.
