After extensive negotiations, Inmarsat and Astrium have taken the first firm steps towards a distribution deal for the Global Xpress Ka-band service following the agreement of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two companies.
The deal, officially an 'MOU on a Strategic Distribution Partnership Agreement for Global Xpress', was struck at the Inmarsat partner conference in Budapest, Hungary, on December 5.
The exact details of what is contained in the document have not yet been disclosed, though it has been confirmed to Digital Ship that the MOU does, at least, pave the way for an agreement on Global Xpress to be reached.
It has also been confirmed that both parties are currently in active negotiations to finalise a deal “in the very near future”, which it is hoped could come about early in 2013.
Astrium has so far been conspicuous by its absence from the growing list of confirmed resellers for Global Xpress, despite the fact that it is currently Inmarsat's largest external distribution partner, contributing to approximately 40 per cent of Inmarsat's maritime revenues.
It is thought that a number of differences exist between the two parties with regard to how they would like to present the product to the market, particularly when it comes to the integration of value added services (VAS) to operate with the Ka-band communications network.
Astrium is understandably keen to be able to differentiate its offering from that of other competitors providing Global Xpress as far as possible, and seems to have so far been discouraged by Inmarsat's efforts to exert greater control over the VAS ecosystem via its alliance with Cisco.
However, this newly agreed MOU may now mark the first steps in negotiating a compromise deal that will see the parties able to cooperate on distribution of the Ka-band service under terms that are satisfactory to both sides.
There should be an eagerness on both sides to reach a resolution - after all, Astrium does not want to be unable to offer Global Xpress to its customers as part of its portfolio, while at the same time Inmarsat can ill afford to exclude its largest maritime partner from its list of resellers as it tries to recoup its $1.2 billion investment into Global Xpress.
Further developments will be keenly awaited, to see if Astrium does indeed join Telemar, GMPCS, Navarino, SingTel, Imtech and JRC as a GX partner in 2013.
Thedigitalship