The coverage expanding to Include Australia and New Zealand Waters
KVH's new mini-VSAT coverage area to support broadband Internet and VoIP telephone service for maritime and aeronautical applications
Continuing its march toward a seamless global broadband network for vessels and aircraft, KVH Industries, Inc., and its Australian distributor Coursemaster Autopilots, announce that the mini-VSAT Broadbandsm coverage for the Australia and New Zealand region is now live. This follows the successful completion of service testing on the Intelsat IS-2 satellite. The new coverage area will provide the first significant support for mini-VSAT Broadband service in the southern hemisphere.
This is the latest milestone in the KVH and ViaSat Inc. joint effort to provide affordable mobile broadband connections around the globe.
“Together with our recently announced coverage for Asian waters and the Indian Ocean, the anticipated addition of service for Australia and New Zealand represents a significant expansion of our increasingly popular mini-VSAT Broadband Internet and voice service to a major commercial and recreational maritime region,” explained Brent C. Bruun, KVH's vice president of sales and business development. “We believe that 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 to commercial and leisure mariners 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.”
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.
Richard Chapman, Coursemaster's Managing Director said “that both leisure and commercial users will benefit with the introduction of the new compact TracPhone V7, which is 75% lighter and 85% smaller by volume than traditional 1-metre VSAT antennas, and brings a blend of the economy and speed of VSAT communications with lower costs and easier installation, making the system exceptionally well suited for a wide range of mobile applications”.
For further information, contact Richard Chapman Coursemaster Autopilots +61 2 9417 7097 www.coursemaster.com
