January 23, 2013: The leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services -- Inmarsat -- has appointed a Managing Director for India, indicating the company’s desire to address the market here.
For this post Inmarsat has turned to Navin Kapila, a veteran of government and industry in the telecom spade, who was honoured by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) with its first Humanitarian Award in October last year.
Navin a former senior official within the Indian Government’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has held top executive posts with ICO Global, a global telecommunications company. He currently serves as a non-executive Board Member of Telkom South Africa and is an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Special Adviser for Emergency Communications.
Says Inmarsat CEO Rupert Pearce: “I am delighted that Navin is joining Inmarsat and will assume this position for us. We believe India presents an exciting market for us and we look forward to developing opportunities which will benefit the universal rollout of telecoms infrastructure to users throughout the country, wherever they may be working or living.”
Ironically, India has banned the use of satellite phones by its citizens as well as visitors on security grounds. However the technology is available to officials and selected agencies for use in defence, security and disaster-prevention.
Inmarsat is the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services and since 1979, I has provided reliable voice and high-speed data communications to governments, enterprises and other organizations, with a range of services on land, at sea or in the air. Inmarsat employs around 1,500 staff in more than 40 locations around the world, with a presence in the major ports and centres of commerce. www.inmarsat.com
Our previous stories on Inmarsat, based on inputs received at Communicasia in Singapore, can be found here:
Now, a global satellite-phone handset from Inmarsat ( June 2010)
Inmarsat extends utility of IsatPhone with fixed versions ( June 2011)