Airtime Services News

Beam Communications, leading global manufacturer of satellite communications equipment for Iridium and Inmarsat services has recently announced changes to the Oceana and Terra range of terminals. Going forward, all Oceana 400 and Oceana 800 terminals will be able to use any standard Inmarsat GSPS (for IsatPhone 2), IsatPhone Link or FleetPhone SIM cards, when previously they were only available for use with the FleetPhone service. Removing the profiling of the SIM will allow customers to utilise the Oceana terminals in different market sectors without restriction, and not just at sea. Reiny Gajewski, Vice President of Global Sales at Beam Communications said, ‘We want to assist the channel in making these products less confusing.

For over 12 years Island Marine Services Pte Ltd (IMS) and subsequently Island Marine Engineering Pte Ltd (IME) have maintained agencies with Sleipner (Side-Power Thrusters), Vestdavit and Headhunter and provided customers in the region and in Europe with naval architecture services and commercial ship servicing. The companies now bring their technical expertise and product range to the corporate portfolio of the AMI Group. The AMI Group has appointed Karl Nilssen, a proprietor of IMS and IME, as general manager of AMI Marine International, to be based out of Singapore.

Level421 GmbH developed mobile communication solutions in the past few years and introduced these into the market 2013 under the label traveltronic. The company today develops, produces and provides mobile communication solutions for vehicles and ships, and also offers airtime services. The developments for this, especially for the ALL.in.ONE System, have been performed in Ulm, Germany. ALL.IN.ONE combines GSM mobile communication with satellite internet capacity solutions to one very compact ALL.in.ONE solution. Whenever the vehicles or ships got a connection to the GSM network, it uses the fast 3G UMTS or even faster 4G LTE networks. Just if there is no GSM network available the solution switches to satellite connection.

Norsat International launches Global-VSAT, an equipment & global airtime services package to leverage Norsat MarineLinkTM maritime VSAT terminals. The package is available via flexible lease and purchase options and will provide Norsat ’s maritime customers with a complete end to end communications solution including terminals, modems, air time, installation, and technical support. Global-VSATTM provides complete coverage through a global satellite network, which features automatic bandwidth levelling for the highest network performance, remote management capabilities for worldwide monitoring and control, and automatic signal switching to prevent signal blockages.

Stratos Global, the leading global provider of advanced mobile and fixed-site remote communications solutions, announced it has been selected by Reederei Claus-Peter Offen (CP Offen) to provide Inmarsat FleetBroadband airtime services for its entire fleet of 122 commercial vessels. CP Offen, based in Hamburg, is one of the world’s largest suppliers of modern commercial ships, including 122 container vessels, tankers and bulkers. CP Offen vessels are chartered by all of the world’s largest operators.

At their European Partner Conference in London last week Inmarsat announced that it has selected Vizada as the recipient of its 2010 Partner Award in the category “Most Significant Contract.” With this award, Vizada is recognized as a solutions innovator for the merchant shipping market, providing shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk with latest Vizada SolutionsTM to optimize communications. Together with Marlink and Inmarsat, Vizada provides Inmarsat FleetBroadband airtime services to an additional 200 vessels, increasing the total number of AP Moller-Maersk vessels sailing with FleetBroadband airtime to 370. web compression and filtering.

Radio Holland USA has been awarded a multi-year contract for supply of VSAT and airtime services for the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS). The fleet, a division of the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, State of Alaska, is made up of 11 vessels; transporting people and vehicles to 34 locations along the Alaska coastline and along a 1000 mile stretch of the Aleutian Chain to the Bering Sea. The route goes through the Inside Passage and passes through islands with high mountains and steep fjords. Due to the extreme northern latitudes and the rugged terrain, typical off the shelf supplied equipment and airtime services would not meet the demanding requirements for the AMHS.

KVH Industries, Inc., (NASDAQ:KVHI) reported financial results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2009. Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2009 was $26.3 million, up 24% from the quarter ended December 31, 2008. Net income for the period was $1.8 million, or $0.13 per diluted share. During the same period last year the company reported net income of $0.3 million or $0.02 per diluted share. For the year ended December 31, 2009, revenue was $89.1 million, up 8% compared to $82.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2008. KVH reported a net loss of $0.1 million or $0.01 per share for 2009. During the same period last year, the company reported net income of $3.1 million or $0.21 per diluted share.

Sait-Stento has expanded its satellite communication services to address the communication needs of onshore users in addition to its maritime user base. The company's services include traffic accounting activities, airtime selling and value added services. Adding on to this will be ISDN high-speed data technology. Sait-Stento's Airtime Services Business Unit (ATS) is launching a special program for mobile users and telecommunication operators called M4Land, which is one of the largest Inmarsat providers in the world.