On Waves Awarded Fleet wide contract with MSC Cruises to provide on board GSM connectivity.

29 April 2008 09:02

On Waves Ehf, the leading maritime mobile services provider, announced today that it has been awarded a Fleet wide contract that covers all MSC Cruises ships.

The agreement covers ten vessels and will include additional vessels in the future. On Waves services will enable voice, SMS and Data connectivity in so far uncovered by terrestrial networks areas at open seas. Further, On Waves services will include Crew Calling pre-paid cards, live on board generated informative messages and live TV and Video transmission over compatible GSM mobile phones and devices.

"This major agreement is a milestone in the industry and we are very proud to participate by offering our maritime GSM and CDMA services to the passengers of MSC Cruises," said Constantin Simeonidis, CEO for On Waves. "To have the trust of an organization like MSC Cruises which operates in several countries in Europe and in the US is a great endorsement of the reliability of our maritime GSM and CDMA services and we are highly honoured to participate into MSC Cruises commitment to bring the best of the mobile technology to their guests."

Mr Emilio La Scala General Manager of MSC Cruises welcomed the introduction of ON WAVES to the fleet. He said it has become a welcome innovation to the company's electronic communications inventory, particularly with the growing demand by passengers requiring reliable, fast communication. He said the initial trials had proven to be a fleet-wide success, particularly because of the ease of use and availability of telephone, data and video facilities for passengers and crew.

ABOUT ON-WAVES EHF

On-Waves is a subsidiary of SIMINN, formerly known as Iceland Telecom, headquartered in Reykjavik, Iceland. SIMINN has been providing roaming services to the maritime market since early 2003. On-Waves acts as the maritime GSM service provider for Iceland’s national telephony provider, SIMINN, a company with 1,200 employees, a market value in excess of US$1.2B and over 450 GSM roaming agreements.

In order to provide maritime GSM services, SIMINN has undertaken major investments and has secured extensions of all its terrestrial Roaming agreements into maritime domain. On-Waves and SIMINN are fully compliant with GSM Association standards and regulations. On Waves currently provides service to 35 vessels, both cruise ships and large ferries, operating in Europe, the Caribbean and the southern hemisphere and has a significant backlog for additional vessels.

On Waves offers also its services into merchant marine to enable crew welfare on board.