[Satellite News 08-06-08] Inmarsat posted a strong increase in operating profits and revenues for the first six months of the year, the satellite operator announced Aug. 6.
    In the first half of 2008, Inmarsat recorded revenues of $311.6 million, an increase of nearly 10 percent compared to the first half of 2007. Revenues from mobile satellite communication services saw an 8.8 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Growth has been strongest in newer services such as Fleet, Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) and Swift 64 as well as in the operator’s leasing business. Revenues from BGAN services were $33.4 million in the first half of 2008, compared to $18.3 million in the first six months of 2007. The number of BGAN subscribers jumped 86 percent to 21,909 during the period.
    Total terminal numbers did not see a huge increase. At the end of June, Inmarsat said the total active terminal numbers for its services reached 235,400, an increase of less than 2 percent from the same period a year ago. Inmarsat attributed part of the slow growth to the end of its Inmarsat-A service, which had more than 3,000 subscribers at the end of December.
    Operating profits for the first six months of 2008 were $133.1 million, an increase of $15 million, or 12.7 percent, compared with the first half of 2007.
    “The strong results for the first half and second quarter demonstrate the continued momentum in our revenue growth across all parts of our business and the economic resilience of the industrial and governmental markets we serve,” Andy Sukawaty, Inmarsat’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “We remain confident in our outlook for the second half of 2008.”