Astrium has completed major extensions to their worldwide VSAT (very small aperture terminal) satellite communications services. Astrium Services now provides maritime VSAT with more bandwidth, more service, smaller antennas and the most extensive global coverage available on the market.

As announced in Hamburg in September, the Astrium Services VSAT brands of Sealink, Wavecall and Pharostar can now benefit from improved coverage and service. The VSAT services are based on iDirect technology and meet the increasing market demand for high performance broadband connectivity at sea.

VSAT terminals installed on board range from 60cm to 2.4min size and provide unlimited broadband connection at sea.

Data throughput speeds are increased up to 3Mbps for standardized VSAT, up to 10Mbps for customized, tailored solutions via Sealink, bringing faster data transfers and more cost efficient connections for maritime vessels using the Astrium services.

Geographical coverage extensions are now completed over the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) as of late-October with plans to further expand over the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean by year end. Customers currently using Astrium's VSAT services will automatically receive coverage in the new areas.

Internet access, email, voice calls, fax and SMS, database backup, video and file transfer protocol for business and crew communications and other maritime applications can be run over Astrium VSAT for fast and always-on connectivity. Chris Tzoutzakis, IT Manager for DND Management has extensive experience with the VSAT service.

"Having Pharostar on the vessel has provided our department the ability to assist the captain on many of his daily tasks.

Now that the service is available in the Indian Ocean and Atlantic, we will be using it even more. VSAT was Astrium
to provide our department the ability to fully support the vessel for all kinds of possible issues (software and hardware). We eliminated the cost of technicians visiting the vessel for IT matters and we are able to train crew on our software via online interfaces."

Tore Morten Olsen, Head of Maritime within the Business Communications division, explains the benefits of this extension. "We are pleased to announce that with the extended, near global coverage, Astrium Services now provides the most extensive Ku-band satellite coverage in the market.

By providing the maximum coverage, we are allowing customers to limit their usage of alternative, more costly communications when they are out of VSAT coverage area."

The VSAT extension is made more efficient with remote fleet management via Vizada XChange control platform, and offers can be combined with both Ku-band and complimentary MSS connectivity when outside VSAT coverage zone.