Thuraya expands its GSM roaming coverage across the Americas

April 17, 2013 -

Thuraya Telecommunications Company, has extended its GSM roaming coverage to 11 additional countries across the Americas in partnership with leading telecommunications providers, Claro and Telefónica. A subsidiary of América Móvil, Claro is the leading provider of telecommunications services in Latin America, operating in 18 countries across the Americas. Telefónica operates across 14 countries in Latin America and manages, through its Movistar and Vivo, commercial brands, more than 30% of the region’s telecommunications market.

Thuraya’s partners will provide GSM roaming for voice and data services to Thuraya users in Alaska, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Paraguay,
Peru, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and Uruguay. The roaming service, which
commenced on April 12, 2013, allows Thuraya subscribers to roam seamlessly on the
Claro and Telefónica networks. Thuraya users can insert their Thuraya SIM card in
any GSM or smartphone to access Claro or Telefonica’s networks. In return, Claro

and Telefónica subscribers will shortly be able to roam across Thuraya’s satellite
network when using a Thuraya satellite handset. With these new roaming
agreements in place, Thuraya now provides truly global coverage for its customers
with its wide satellite coverage and in over 161 countries across 356 GSM networks
throughout Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, Latin America and North
America.

T. Sanford Jewett, Vice President of Marketing at Thuraya, said: “We are pleased to
be working with our partners to provide our users with expanded coverage across
the Americas. Thuraya is the only mobile satellite service provider that offers
roaming services with terrestrial wireless networks. With the expansion of our GSM
coverage to the Americas, Thuraya subscribers have the freedom to choose between
satellite and GSM coverage around the globe.”