Browsing the Internet via satellite can be an expensive exercise. However there is a new service about to be launched by Xantic called Easy Accelerator. This service will be available free to all our E3 Airtime customers within the next month.
What is Easy Accelerator?
Easy Accelerator makes browsing the Internet via satellite fast and cheap. With Easy Accelerator you can optimise your browsing by reducing the size of selected web page content (pictures, audio, text). This way your Internet experience is faster and satellite costs can be reduced by up to 90%.
The Easy Accelerator service can be used for Internet and Intranet access, from any Inmarsat service (RBGAN, GAN/Fleet 77and MPDS, Fleet 33/55, B, M or Mini-M).
How to use it?
E3 Airtime customers can choose one of the settings on the Easy Accelerator Xantic web page. These settings vary from ‘high compression’ to ‘no compression’ and steps in between.
After closing and re-opening your browser you are automatically using the Easy Accelerator. Could it be as simple as that?
When using the service, you can check on the webpage what you are actually saving.
How it works
When you request a web page from the yacht via your satellite connection a computer (proxy server) in the Land Earth Station (LES) gets the web page for you from the Internet. Before it sends it to you the computer modifies it according to the compression settings you selected during set up. Depending on your setting the web page will be reduced by 20%, 50% or 80%.
E3 Phone Home for yacht crew
The summer Med season is fast approaching and if the crew can keep in touch with family and friends at home it maintains morale and is a vital tool in retaining key personnel.
E3 Airtime has a number of easy and cost effective ways of helping to achieve this.
The first product in the E3 Phone Home portfolio is designed for crew who spend long periods on board whilst the yacht cruises areas with poor conventional GSM communications.
This is the E3 Xantic ChatCard Reload. This is a simple, easy-to-use prepaid scratch calling card. The Card allows a crewmember to use any of the Inmarsat satellite communication equipment on board the yacht and have the cost of the call deducted from the prepaid units on the Card. ChatCard Reload can be used with Inmarsat-A, -B, -M, mini-M and GAN, the new Inmarsat Fleet, plus email and SMS via the new mini-C. Previously, ChatCard users had to buy a new card each time the 250 or 500 units of credit were used. With ChatCard Online, a ChatCard can now be reloaded over and over again. Also to avoid large expenses upfront, ChatCard Reload can also be ordered with an initial value of 50 units.
The second product, when ashore or within GSM range offshore, is to join the E3 family of GSM/GPRS clients with E3 GSM 4 Crew. Most crew have a GSM phone or phones with numerous Pay as you Go cards, all with different numbers for different countries. How often are you dashing ashore in a new location to get a new Pay as you Go card, or having to top up your existing card? How often are you phoning/texting family to say your telephone number has changed? Can you browse the Internet? To top all this, how much are you paying for your Pay as you Go minutes?
With E3 GSM 4 Crew you can have all the advantages of our very competitive yacht usage rates (as low as €0.07/min), keep the same number throughout the Mediterranean, benefit from the cheapest roaming tariffs around, call other crew friends with the same E3 GSM 4 Crew contract or your yacht E3 GSM 4 Yacht number for Euros 0.07/min, have GPRS and 3G (to come) data, have a Spanish or French number, send text messages for Euros 0.20 etc, etc. Payment is by credit card. Your card is debited for your chosen credit limit and before it’s used up a warning text message is sent asking for confirmation to debit again before the credit expires.
Everyone wins with E3 GSM 4 Crew, the crewmember, their friends and family, the captain (if the yacht is using E3 Airtime) and the yacht’s owner.
For further information about Easy Accelerator and E3 GSM 4 Crew or any other E3 Airtime products please contact: Tony Holland, E3 Airtime. Tel: +34 971 404208/400738 Mob: +34 627 940 820 or email: tony@e3s.com