The crews working the offshore oilfields of western Africa and maritime visitors to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa will be pleased to learn that they will will have a new means of staying in touch and up to date as KVH Industries, Inc., [Nasdaq: KVHI] prepares to roll out African coverage for its mini-VSAT Broadband service.
The latest step in the joint effort by KVH and ViaSat to offer a seamless global broadband network for vessels and aircraft, the new African coverage area is expected to go live before the end of 2009 using the Telesat T-11N satellite. Once active, it will support broadband Internet and voice service for commercial and leisure boaters as well as provide network coverage to the ViaSat Yondersm in-flight broadband network for business and commercial aircraft.
“The addition of African coverage is a major milestone for the mini-VSAT Broadband network as we now have live coverage or are under contract to provide coverage for virtually every major maritime region on the globe,” said Brent C. Bruun, KVH’s vice president of sales and business development.
“We’re especially pleased with the addition of this new region to our network as it enables us to bring affordable, versatile broadband Internet and voice services to commercial operators supporting the increasingly vital west African offshore oil and gas fields. In addition, more than half a million visitors are expected to visit South Africa next year for the 2010 World Cup and many of them will be traveling or staying on leisure vessels for which our TracPhone® V7 and the mini-VSAT Broadband network are an ideal communications solution.”
The mini-VSAT Broadband service, along with the KVH TracPhone V7 antenna, comprise the first end-to-end 24-inch VSAT hardware, service, and support package available for maritime communications. Together, KVH and ViaSat are already offering Voice over IP phone service and Internet access as fast as 512 Kbps (upload) and 2 Mbps (download) at fixed monthly rates to mariners throughout North America, the Caribbean, the North Atlantic, Europe, the Northern Pacific, and the Persian Gulf.
“With more than 500 TracPhone V7s shipped worldwide, our end-to-end communications solution is proving itself in a wide range of applications and rapidly becoming a popular and affordable choice among commercial and leisure mariners around the globe,” continued Mr. Bruun. “Our seamless mini-VSAT Broadband network, together with our compact 24-inch (60 cm) commercial-grade antenna and fixed-rate monthly airtime pricing, offers unique benefits with regard to hardware and service costs as well as the value that comes with an affordable broadband data connection for crew morale, shipboard operation, regulatory compliance, and more.”
