Mercy Ships Announces Satellite Agreement For Non-Governmental Hospital Ship

Mercy Ships announced today from their corporate headquarters that they have secured a strategic alliance with Maritime Telecommunications Network (MTN). MTN will provide all satellite equipment, monitoring, support, bandwidth and logistics. The hardware will be provided by MTN as part of the agreement.

Having a reliable, 24/7 communications ability has long been a dream for Mercy Ships, which often sends its ships to locations where adequate communication facilities are not available. Until now, that dream has seemed out of reach. However, with today's announcement, one of the three vessels in the Mercy Ships fleet will be equipped with full-time satellite communications capabilities both in port, and at sea. "We are pleased to provide Mercy Ships with global telecommunication services," stated David Kagan, chief executive officer of MTN. "The Mercy Ships application will incorporate broadband services using our latest shipboard communication technology aboard their vessel. We're excited to provide Mercy Ships crew and staff with the capabilities of staying in touch and doing business via MTN's robust telephony and Internet network, as if they were on land." Mercy Ships Chief Information Officer, Kreig Ecklund reports, "The Internet and telephone access MTN is providing for Mercy Ships enables us to operate more efficiently and instantaneously. It dramatically increases the security for our crew, as well as permits us to expand our information systems to the ship. MTN is perfectly poised to meet our needs. Their willingness to provide economical services, systems, and equipment, is what put their system within our reach."