2 September 2010

Vizada, has teamed up with its long-term service provider partner Nautical to provide the Inmarsat FleetBroadband service to more than 300 Spanish fishing vessels, enabling them to comply with new European Union (EU) regulations.

The EU regulations came into effect on 1 July 2010 and require all fishing vessels of more than 24-metres (78-ft) to supply reports of catch, trans-shipments, landings and sales electronically to European fishing authorities.

Vizada and Nautical have put together a customized communications package based on Inmarsat FleetBroadband to enable fishing companies to easily and cost-effectively transmit this data once recorded. Nautical, the leading supplier of mobile satellite services to the Spanish fishing market has so far provided the package to more than 330 fishing vessels, representing approximately 60% of the Spanish market.

The package comprises Vizada airtime, an Inmarsat Sailor FleetBroadband terminal (FB 250 or 150, including extended warranty), the Elog software package developed by the Spanish government for recording catch data, and Vizada’s proprietary SkyFile Mail software for the secure and cost-effective transmission of that data.

Fishing companies will receive grants of up to 4,500 euros from the Spanish government to subsidize the purchase of the package.

Carlos Suarez del Villar, Satcom Director at Nautical said: "The FleetBroadband service is the perfect system to meet the EU’s new fishing quota requirements, however in the long term we aim to show fishing companies that having a broadband communications system on board can significantly improve their business."

Carlos continued: "The high-speed, always on connectivity enables them to check weather reports and charts, and even help create an ‘online market place’ where they can sell their catch before they’re arrived back at shore. And if they decide to use Vizada Solutions like on board like Terralink Data Manager, the captain can keep tight control of costs at all times."