Skippers of the Vendée Globe Show Their Confidence Once Again in Satellite Communication Solutions Provided By SeaMobile Europe

After the Cap Istanbul, the Solitaire du Figaro, the Calais Round Britain Race and the Transat Jacques Vabre, it is now Vendée Globe skippers who will benefit from the voice and data satellite communication solutions provided by SeaMobile Europe.

SeaMobile Europe, formerly known as Geolink, equipped more than half of the 30 boats in the Vendée Globe race today with voice and data satellite communications solutions. Among these 18 boats are the monohull leaders Safran, BT, Ecover, Delta Dore, PRB, Poujoulat, Temenos, and Kingdom of Barhain.

With these voice and data communications solutions, skippers are able to stay connected to the information they need from Les Sables d’Olonne to Cape Horn, even in the middle of nowhere.

Iridium-based solutions provided by SeaMobile Europe allow skippers to communicate with the public, media, sponsors, friends and family at any time of day or night. Five skippers have chosen to install the new Iridium OpenPortTM, a new enhanced-bandwidth marine satellite communication service. Jérémie Beyou (Delta Dore), Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat), Dominique Wavre (Temenos II), Marc Thiercelin (DCNS) and Brian Thompson (Pindar) benefit from using the only available enhanced-bandwidth marine satcom service that provides voice and data capabilities anywhere on the globe. While other maritime communications services are limited to regional coverage, Iridium OpenPort allows them to have access to a connection of 128 kbps wherever they are, even in the far south hemisphere where skippers usually have difficulties communicating.

“The beauty of this new terminal for these competitive skippers is its global performance, its lightness and its low energy consumption. For an equivalent connection speed, it will use six times less energy than competitive products, while still allowing skippers to send pictures, emails and data at 128 kilobits per second (kbps),” said Bruno Gicquel, Director of Maritime Operations for SeaMobile Europe.

“Iridium OpenPort not only offers a unique value proposition of multiple phone circuits, IP connectivity and scalable data speeds up to 128 kbps with low equipment and airtime costs,” said Don Thoma, Iridium Vice President of Marketing. “Packaged with Iridium’s global coverage and unmatched network quality, Iridium OpenPort is an unbeatable combination that is creating a new competitive dynamic in the marine satcom market. The installed cost of an Iridium OpenPort terminal is much lower than competing marine satcom systems, and its per-megabyte prices for data also are lower than other marine satcom services on the market today. This means a return on investment measured in months rather than years.”

The majority of the skippers also acquired Clipway Challenges, the media file transmission software, as well as GeolinkConnect, a unique messaging service that optimises data transmission while reducing communication costs. Both products are provided by SeaMobile Europe.

For more than 17 years, SeaMobile Europe, formerly known as Geolink, has been providing its customers throughout the world with global, innovative and reliable satellite communication solutions.