Cell Phone Rental.Net is one of the market leaders in temporary cellular and satellite phone rentals, providing cell phones for use all over the world with country wide coverage and no roaming or long distance charges. For your travel abroad, Cell Phone Rental.Net has international cell phone rentals , with local phone numbers in many European countries, Asia and South America. Our phones work in over 220 countries worldwide!

We also provide GPS auto navigation devices, Blackberries and Satellite phones for rent .
Our highly trained staff, with years of experience in the market, will guide you throughout the process and give you a custom solution for your communication needs.

This way we provide a complete telecommunications solution, where customer service and care is our highest priority! Please fell free to enter our website to learn all about our services, rates and coverage.

The satellites are digital transponders that receive digital signals, reform the pulses, and then retransmit them to ground stations. The ground stations perform billing and act as gateways to the public switched telephone network and Internet.

Inmarsat's most recent series of satellites were launched in June and November 2005. These were the largest commercial telecommunications satellites ever launched. Each satellite is equipped with a global beam, 19 regional spot beams, and 228 narrow spot beams.

In addition to her own satellites, Inmarsat has a collaboration agreement with ACeS regarding handheld voice services.

Inmarsat plc is an international telecommunications company founded in 1979, originally as an intergovernmental organization. It operates a fleet of eleven (as of 2005) geosynchronous telecommunications satellites. The company is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: ISAT) as of June 2005. It is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

Inmarsat-3 satellite

Satellite phone (Inmarsat) Inmarsat provides telephony and data services to users world-wide, via special digital radios called "terminals". An Inmarsat terminal contacts the satellite and communicates to a ground station through the satellite. It provides reliable communications services to a range of governments, aid agencies, media outlets and businesses needing to communicate in remote regions or where there is no reliable terrestrial network.

Aside from its commercial services, Inmarsat provides global distress and safety services (GMDSS) to ships and aircraft at no charge, as a public service.

Services include traditional voice calls, low-level data tracking systems, and high-speed data services as well as distress and safety services. The most recent of these provides GPRS-type services at up to 492 kbit/s via the BGAN IP satellite modem the size of a notebook computer. Other services provide mobile ISDN services used by the media for live reporting on world events via videophone.

Historically expensive, calls via Inmarsat have now dropped to a level where they are comparable, and in many cases favorable, to international roaming costs, or hotel phone calls. Voice call charges are the same wherever in the world the service is used.

Newer Inmarsat services using IP technology feature an always-on capability where the users are simply charged for the amount of data they send and receive rather than the length of time they are online. This applies specifically to BGAN, Regional BGAN, and MPDS.

Coverage

Inmarsat Global HQ on Old Street, London. (January 2006)There are 3 types of coverage related to each Inmarsat satellite.

Global beam coverage. Each satellite is equipped with a single global beam that covers up to one-third of the Earth's surface, apart from the poles. In general, global beam coverage extends from latitudes of -78 to +78 degrees regardless of longitude.

Wide spot beam coverage. It relates to the overlap of the wide spot beams (a set of narrower beams creating a coverage pattern). Wide spot beam coverage is optimised for covering most areas of interest to Inmarsat's customers and is thus somewhat limited in comparison to global beam coverage. This coverage was introduced with the I-3 satellites. Each I-4 satellite provides 19 wide spot beams.

Narrow spot beam coverage. It relates to the overlap of the narrow spot beams (a set of very narrow beams creating a coverage pattern). Narrow spot beam coverage is designed to form the backbone of Inmarsat's broadband services, including the Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN). This coverage is introduced with the I-4 satellites. Each I-4 satellite provides 228 narrow spot beams.

Satellites

Inmarsat-4 satellites

Inmarsat-4F1 / Coverage: IOR / 64 degrees East longitude / Launched on an Atlas rocket on 11 March 2005. This satellite suppports BGAN and Regional BGAN services only.

Inmarsat-4 F2 / Coverage: AOR-West / 53 degrees West Longitude / Launched on a Sea-Launch rocket 8 November 2005 14:07 GMT. This satellite supports nearly all Inmarsat services.

Inmarsat-4 F3 has been completed and is awaiting launch.

Inmarsat-3 satellites

Inmarsat-3F1 / Coverage: IOR / 65 degrees East longitude / Launched with Atlas Centaur IIA on 3 April 1996. This satellite is used for existing and evolved services only.

Inmarsat-3F2 / Coverage: AOR-E / 15.5 degrees West longitude / Launched with Proton D-1-E on 6 September 1996. This satellite is used for existing and evolved services only.

Inmarsat-3F3 / Coverage: POR / 178 degrees East longitude / Launched with Atlas Centaur IIA on 17 December 1996. This satellite is used for existing and evolved services only.

Inmarsat-3F4 / Coverage: PAC-C / 142 degrees West longitude / Launched with Ariane 4 (V97) on 3 June 1997. This satellite is used for various leases.

Inmarsat-3F5 / Spare (AOR-W) / 54 degrees West longitude / Launched with Ariane 4 (V105) on 4 February 1998.

Inmarsat-2 satellites

These satellites are primarily used for leases.

Inmarsat-2F1, launched October 1990, expected operational life 2010

Inmarsat-2F2, launched March 1991, expected operational life 2010

Inmarsat-2F3, launched December 1991, decommissioned 2006

Inmarsat-2F4, launched April 1992, expected operational life 2016

Country codes

The telephone country codes for calling Inmarsat destinations are:

870 SNAC (Single Network Access Code)

871 Atlantic Ocean Region – East (AOR-E)

872 Pacific Ocean Region (POR)

873 Indian Ocean Region (IOR)

874 Atlantic Ocean Region – West (AOR-W)

The 870 SNAC number is actually a locator service so that you don't have to know to which satellite the destination Inmarsat terminal is logged in. SNAC however doesn't support calls to Inmarsat-A terminals.

The other four country codes correspond to the areas which Inmarsat satellites cover (normally one satellite per area). These areas are commonly called "Ocean Regions".

Networks

Inmarsat has gradually developed a series of networks providing certain sets of services (most networks support multiple services). They are grouped into two sets, existing and evolved services, and IP-based services. Existing and evolved services are offered through Land Earth Stations which are not owned nor operated by Inmarsat, but through companies which have a commercial agreement with Inmarsat. IP-based services are provided via distribution partners but the satellite gateways are owned and operated by Inmarsat directly.

IP-based shared-carrier services, as follows:

Regional BGAN: RBGAN offers a shared-channel IP packet-switched service of up to 144 kbit/s based on GPRS technology. Coverage is limited to parts of Europe, Asia, Africa & Australia. The new Inmarsat-4 satellite for the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has taken over RBGAN service from the Thuraya satellite. The new Inmarsat-4 satellite for AOR-West now provides service to South America and the Western edges of Europe and Africa, however no service is offered to North or Central America. Inmarsat have announced the closure of the RBGAN service on December 31, 2008.

BGAN: Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) benefits from the new I-4 satellites to offer a shared-channel IP packet-switched service of up to 492 kbit/s (uplink and downlink speeds may differ and depend on terminal model) and a streaming-IP service from 32 up to 256 kbit/s (services depend on terminal model). Certain terminals also offer circuit-switched Mobile ISDN services at 64 kbit/s and even low speed (4.8 kbit/s) voice etc services. BGAN service is available on the IOR satellite and AOR-West satellite, with POR service planned for 2007. The BGAN family includes SwiftBroadband, a service planned for aircraft, and FleetBroadband, a service planned for ships and the maritime community.