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WirelessDevNet.com Press Release
Mobile Satellite Users Association Announces 2011 Awards to be Presented at Upcoming Conference
McLean, VA - The Mobile Satellite Users Association (MSUA) announced the winners of its 2011 Awards, with Innovation Awards made to Iridium for its Short Burst Data product and to KVH Industries for its mini-VSAT Broadband product. The 2011 MSUA Pioneer Award was made to Ahmad Ghais. The MSUA-8 conference is being held in conjunction with SATELLITE 2011 Conference and Exhibition, the premier event providing solutions to the satellite end-user community, and includes a luncheon on Tuesday, March 15, at which the awards will be presented.
MSUA-8 and SATELLITE 2011 will be held from March 14-17, 2011 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C.
Commenting on the awards, MSUA President Tim Farrar noted “2011 is the fourth year in which MSUA has presented its annual Innovation Award and this year we are delighted to recognize two very worthy recipients. The first award goes to Iridium’s Short Burst Data (SBD) product which has seen rapid adoption in the MSS industry through a very wide range of Value Added Developers and Resellers. The new Iridium 9602 SBD Transceiver was introduced in 2010, with dramatic improvements in the size and cost of the original product, and Iridium has already received orders for hundreds of thousands of units. The second award goes to KVH’s innovative mini-VSAT Broadband product, which achieved a breakthrough in size and affordability and has made high speed VSAT service accessible to a far greater range of maritime vessels. KVH has experienced strong uptake for mini-VSAT Broadband over the last three years, and its many imitators have only served to confirm how important small antennas are to the maritime community.”
MSUA Chairman Bob Roe stated that MSUA’s Pioneer Award is being conferred on Dr. Ahmad Ghais in recognition of “his unique role in the creation of the Mobile Satellite Services industry. In the 1970s, Ahmad was manager of NASA’s Mobile Radiodetermination branch, where he planned, coordinated and conducted a multinational mobile satellite communications experiment using the L-band payload of the ATS-6 satellite and participated in the US delegation to international conferences which led to the formation of Inmarsat. From 1983-1994 he served as Inmarsat’s Director of Engineering and Operations, where he was responsible for all the Engineering and Operations functions of the organization. Ahmad has also been closely involved in MSUA since it was founded in 1992 as the Inmarsat Users Association, and was President of the Association from 1997 to 2004.”
“We are honored to receive this recognition from MSUA for the Iridium 9602 SBD Transceiver,” said Matt Desch, Iridium CEO. “MSUA’s Innovation Awards are unique because of their focus on the quantified market impact of a new product in terms of revenues and subscribers. This award demonstrates how the new Iridium 9602 has achieved unprecedented success on both counts—creating new, innovative growth opportunities for Iridium and our partners.”
Brent C. Bruun, KVH’s vice president of satellite sales and business development, noted that “We greatly appreciate this honor from MSUA and its understanding that mini-VSAT Broadband offers mobile satellite users an option other than L-band services or traditional ‘big dish’ VSAT. Products that take advantage of the higher throughput available on FSS satellites have become a critical component of more affordable and practical broadband solutions. With our advances in small antenna design, together with the spread spectrum technology developed by our partner, ViaSat, they will become ever more important to mobile users in the future.”
The eighth international Mobile Satellite Users Conference and Exhibition, MSUA-8, provides a unique opportunity for users and providers of mobile satellite communications. MSUA-8 is the only forum devoted exclusively to the mobile satellite industry, and features panel discussions and demonstrations of satellite terminals from many companies. Tickets to the luncheon are included with MSUA-8 Conference registration, or can be purchased a la carte. For more information, or to register for MSUA-8, please go to www.SATELLITEMobilityZone.com.
MSUA (www.msua.org) is a non-profit association that promotes the interests of mobile satellite users worldwide. It serves the interests of mobile satellite users by fostering communications among and between users, suppliers of mobile satellite equipment and services, operators of mobile satellite systems, and the various entities that may affect the future of the industry. In addition, MSUA reviews, analyzes and reports on, from a user’s perspective, the activities, regulatory decisions and critical events of the MSS industry. Finally, MSUA provides a means of assembling MSS users’ views on system and service concerns and conveying these concerns to the appropriate authorities.
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