Mobile satellite communications provider Inmarsat has introduced Elera, a global narrowband network for organisations and industries who are harnessing the IoT.

Elera is designed as a springboard for innovation to unlock, accelerate and scale a host of IoT use cases for commercial users, including the rail, agriculture, utilities and mining sectors.

The network builds on the company’s position in L-band satellite services with technologies that are claimed to deliver unparalleled L-band speeds and the smallest, low-cost user terminals, underpinned by Inmarsat’s record for reliability, resilience and availability.

Elera will be a component of Inmarsat Orchestra, a network that will combine GEO, LEO and 5G.

“Elera is perfectly suited to the needs of the connected IoT world,” said Rajeev Suri, CEO of UK-based Inmarsat. “Global reach, extraordinary resilience, faster speeds, smaller and lower cost terminals are all part of ensuring that we remain ahead of others in meeting the needs of our customers. Elera is a further sign of a company with true momentum and one that is delivering new innovations and strong performance.”

Suri said he expected that Inmarsat would grow strongly in 2021 compared with the previous year, and that growth would span most of its business units.

“Our progress was evident in the first half, where we saw strong growth in revenue and EBITDA and robust cash flow,” he said. “We have sharpened our strategy to focus on driving growth, accelerate decision making, launch new innovations, and are creating a more commercially focused, customer-centric culture.”

Elera builds on Inmarsat’s position in mobile satellite services and aims to be a springboard for innovation, unlocking, accelerating and scaling use cases on land, at sea and in the air. Its foundation is the L-band network and incorporates innovations ranging from higher speeds to smaller, low-cost terminals and the previously announced Inmarsat-6 satellites, the first of which (I-6 F1) is scheduled to launch before the end of the year.

Coming just two weeks after Inmarsat announced Orchestra, Elera is said to underline Inmarsat’s focus on the global mobility segment of satellite communications.

The capabilities of Elera, combined with Inmarsat’s spectrum and position of its satellite networks, could make it a catalyst for new IoT use cases across everything from autonomous transport and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to industrial and agricultural IoT applications. 

The innovations the company is investing in include spectrum management technology to deliver L-band speeds up to 1.7Mbit/s, the smallest footprint, low-cost L-band terminal and two new L-band satellites, which are the largest and most sophisticated commercial communication satellites the firm has created.

The spectrum management capabilities – known as carrier aggregation – being incorporated into the Elera network should deliver the fastest speeds globally available to L-band users.

Live customer trials in commercial aviation are scheduled to start during 2022 and this technology will be rolled out across a range of sector specific applications for Inmarsat’s mobility, government and IoT users over the coming few years. 

Elera will also see the creation of the smallest footprint, low-cost terminal for L-band users, delivering a framework for satcom IoT at scale, with supporting cloud-based management, for vertical sectors such as infrastructure, rail, logistics, mining, agriculture, government, maritime and aviation.

Inmarsat is launching two satellites to enhance the Elera network. The I-6 satellites, the first of which is scheduled to launch at the end of 2021, are the largest and most sophisticated commercial communications satellites it has built.

The L-band capacity on each I-6 satellite will be greater than Inmarsat’s fourth-generation spacecraft and will deliver 50% more capacity per beam, meaning more data can be carried over the same geographical area, in addition to unlimited beam routing flexibility.

Elera will also extend Inmarsat’s portfolio of voice-enabled devices, bringing capabilities and innovations to hundreds of thousands of users.

“Elera is the exciting vision of how Inmarsat is planning to transform the capabilities offered to IoT and mobility customers for years to come and confirms our long-term commitment to L-band services,” said Suri. “We will be sharing further detail on these innovations with our partner community in the coming months and continue our programme of announcements as we achieve major milestones.”