OTTAWA and MONTREAL, Nov. 9, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- EMS SATCOM, a division of EMS Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:ELMG) and VITROCISET Belgium and CREACTION INT., reported today that the three companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to create and develop a new Satellite Communications Service Provider offering airtime services and equipment to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The MOU is being signed today as part of a Belgian trade mission to Canada, held in Montreal.
"Mobile resource management is rapidly gaining ground as an important tool in a broad variety of industry sectors from commercial applications in the oil and gas and service industries to military applications including force tracking systems," says EMS SATCOM Senior Vice President and General Manager Neil Mackay. "This joint venture to launch a satellite communications service provider with VITROCISET Belgium/CREACTION is an important part of our strategy to continue to developing lucrative and growing market opportunities in Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa."
The MOU recognizes the individual areas of expertise of each company in the endeavour. VITROCISET Belgium operates the European Space Agency (ESA) satellite ground station in Redu, Belgium, which tracks and receives the signals from the Artemis L-band communications satellite. EMS SATCOM supplies satellite communications equipment including its eNcompass PDT satellite-based Packet Data Terminal, and airtime services. CREACTION is the Belgian official correspondent for ESA Space Technology Transfer and develops new applications and services in partnership with European companies. With the creation of a satellite communications service provider as the backdrop to the agreement, the team's initial objective is to demonstrate and validate a satellite-based service offering on-demand bus services to rural areas in Belgium. With the satellite network already working and the pilot project already underway, the two companies are enthusiastic about the tremendous potential of the venture.
"We are anxious to grow this opportunity to its fullest extent and our pilot project to develop on-demand bus services is an important milestone for kick-starting this venture," says Gian Carlo Coletta, Site Manager for VITROCISET's Belgian operations.
Belgium's and France's rural communities are in need of public transportation services, but allocating buses to regularly scheduled routes in these areas does not make financial sense. Using satellite-based communications, passengers benefit because they can text a message to a dispatching center and arrange to be picked up and transported. Notes Coletta: "The value to the organizations operating the buses is that they can reliably and automatically track vehicle locations, communicate with the drivers and dispatch vehicles as required, even where there is no terrestrial infrastructure."
Jean-Paul Henry, Managing Director of CREACTION, says, "The opportunities for developing a variety of market applications are quite significant. VITROCISET's satellite expertise and EMS SATCOM's success at creating and developing new satellite communications applications form an excellent starting point for the collaboration."
"The clear advantage of using satellite-based communications networks," comments Mackay, "is that in rural areas where the population numbers cannot support robust terrestrial communications infrastructure, satellite communications can step in. Our experience in force-tracking with NATO and transport-trucking in North America and Algiers has shown us, time and time again, the benefits associated with low-speed text messaging."
About VITROCISET Belgium
VITROCISET Belgium is focused on the management of Satellite Ground Stations. The company develops and offers high value added services for the Satcom community. With a flexible and customer-centric responsive approach, VITROCISET Belgium offers in-orbit operations providing satellite operators, manufacturers and users the tools to monitor, analyze and detect on board spacecraft anomalies, and ground station operations and Services including Satellite Control Centers (SCC), Telemetry Tracking and Commands (TT&C), Satellite Gateway Services and Satellite Ground Control Engineering. The company also provides mission control systems (MCS) and electrical ground support equipment (EGSE) software infrastructures, customizing European Space Agency generic applications and developing specific solutions specifically in the area of automation. VITROCISET Belgium plays a significant role in the European Galileo IOV programme. For more information visit the company's website at www.vitrociset-epb.be.
About CREACTION International
CREACTION specializes in the support of innovation management, research and development laboratories assessment, new products or services global department, technology transfer, 3D modeling and design.
CREACTION coordinates technology transfer activities from space to non-space sectors under the ESA/Technology Transfer Program and the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office.
For more information, visit the company's website at www.creaction.be
About EMS SATCOM
EMS SATCOM specializes in the design and development of satellite-based terminals and antennas for the aeronautical, ground-mobile, maritime and emergency management markets. As the 2005 Frost & Sullivan Command and Control Enabling Technology of the Year award winner, the EMS SATCOM is a leader in developing and supplying high-speed data communications equipment for enabling vital communications resources such as voice, e-mail and Internet capabilities to a broad variety of aircraft. Based in Ottawa, Canada, and employing 270 people worldwide, EMS SATCOM has a development office in the U.K. and sales offices in the U.S., Mexico and Europe.
EMS SATCOM is a division of EMS Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:ELMG), a leading innovator in the design and manufacture of wireless, satellite and defense solutions.
For more information, visit the company's website at www.emssatcom.com