Inmarsat announced that it is to expand its FleetBroadband family to offer an entry-level, globally deployable, combined voice and data service targeted at small vessels. The new service, FB150, will deliver voice, IP data up to 150kbps and SMS, and is planned to be available by mid-2009. Inmarsat has developed the new service to address the needs of smaller leisure, fishing and commercial vessels with lower data requirements than the high performance FB250 and FB500. FB150 will offer a voice connection at landline quality, accessible simultaneously with internet-capable IP data and simple-to-use SMS. The first manufacturers of FB150 hardware will be Thrane & Thrane and AddValue, which is partnering with SpaceCom for antenna production.