KVH Industries has named Andesat a reseller for its mini-VSAT Broadband service and TracPhone V-series satellite communications systems. In addition to managing a mini-VSAT Broadband hub at their teleport in Santiago, Chile, Andesat will now provide TracPhone V-series systems and mini-VSAT Broadband service to its distribution partners in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador.

"KVH is committed to bringing reliable, affordable satellite communications to commercial mariners in South America, and expanding our relationship with Andesat will help us to achieve that goal," explains Brent C. Bruun, KVH's senior vice president of global sales and business development.

"Andesat is a diverse and well-established company that will help us reach this customer base effectively. They will be a tremendous asset in growing our business in South America, particularly as we combine their presence in the Southern Cone and Andean region with our existing distribution strategy in Brazil."

"We are excited to build upon our existing relationship with KVH by becoming a reseller, offering the outstanding mini-VSAT Broadband service and TracPhone V-series hardware to South American mariners through our distribution partners," says Pablo Rasore, general manager at Andesat.

"KVH has an outstanding reputation for providing the service that mariners need with hardware and rates that are realistic for their budgets, even on smaller vessels. We're looking forward to leveraging this relationship to help these mariners enhance the way they do business."

The mini-VSAT Broadband service is unique in that it uses ArcLight spread spectrum technology developed by KVH's satellite technology partner, ViaSat. The spread spectrum technology enables use of antennas as small as 37 cm for the Ku-band service and as small as 1 meter for the combined C/Ku-band coverage.

Although significantly smaller, these antennas match the coverage and speed of much larger maritime VSAT antennas using older services based on time division multiple access (TDMA) technology.

With onboard equipment as small and affordable as L-band systems, the power of fast, affordable VSAT service is rapidly becoming the preferred option for large segments of the maritime market that were formerly limited to expensive legacy satellite communications services.

Since launching the mini-VSAT Broadband service in late 2007, KVH has fielded one of the world's broadest Ku-band VSAT networks, using 14 Ku-band satellite transponders to provide a seamless web of multimegabit coverage.

The service will soon cover 95% of the Earth, including all of the oceans bordering southern South America, with the addition of coverage from three overlayed, global C-band transponders and a unique dual-mode TracPhone system that seamlessly switches between C- and Ku-band frequencies. In most regions, vessels enjoy redundant coverage to assure robust connectivity.

KVH is the only maritime VSAT provider to manufacture its own fully integrated onboard terminal and network manager, operate a global C/Ku-band VSAT network, and provide worldwide 24/7/365 after-sale support.

The ability to control every aspect of its equipment and network has enabled KVH to field the world's premier global maritime VSAT network. In March 2012, the marketing research firm Euroconsult reported KVH leads the maritime VSAT market for number of customers using its service.