Smart broadens satellite phone service

Leading mobile phone operator Smart Communications has partnered with global mobile satellite communications provider Inmarsat to broaden the geographic coverage of its Smart Link satellite phone service.

The collaboration with Inmarsat involves a $5-million investment by Smart to set up a gateway facility and ground infrastructure in Subic, Zambales. It will result in an expanded coverage area for the Smart Link prepaid wireless satellite phone service that will initially include India, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, Africa, and the Pacific Ocean.

The Smart services will be carried on the Inmarsat-4 F1 satellite, which can support both voice call services and data connectivity.

The expanded coverage area complements the existing coverage provided by the Garuda 1 network of Asia Cellular Satellite (ACeS), which covers 11 million square miles of Asia, from Pakistan in the west to Japan in the east and Indonesia and Papua New Guinea in the south.

“By 2009, we will further expand the coverage for the Smart Link prepaid service to be virtually global by utilizing the full Inmarsat-4 constellation.  We will be supported by one of the world’s most extensive and sophisticated global satellite networks,” said Smart president and CEO Napoleon Nazareno.

“This is in line with Smart’s efforts to offer a broad range of communications services to our seafarers so they can be in touch with their families and loved ones even when they are out at sea,” according to Smart head for public access group Tina Mariano.

For his part, Inmarsat president and chief operating officer Michael Butler noted that the collaboration with Smart is a key component of the success of their newly launched satellite phone services.

“Smart’s ability to service a significant maritime community with Smart Link adds real value to a sector with which Inmarsat has a long-standing and important relationship,” he explained.

Filipino seafarers comprise more than 90 percent of Smart Link’s subscribers. The other users include ship and yacht owners, residential users and businesses, the government, military, mining and exploration, and public calling office operators.

Founded in 1979, Inmarsat owns a fleet of 10 geostationary satellites that provides a wide range of voice and high-speed data services through an established global network of distributors and service providers. 

Inmarsat has stood at the forefront of mobile satellite services for nearly 30 years. Its new Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service, for example, is now enabling TV broadcasters to deliver breaking news ‘live via videophone’ into millions of homes.

In 1999, the company became the first inter-governmental organization to privatize; it then subsequently listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2005.

Smart has over 27 million subscribers on its GSM network as of July 2007.