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cludes the TracPhone V3, mini-VSAT Broadband service, and Boatracs BT- Connect and Boatracs BTForms. For its part, Boatracs saw that the next wave of solutions would need to in- clude true broadband connections. And, according to Irwin Rodriguez, President and CEO of Boatracs, In the future, mission critical operations on the water will not be supported by cellular communications alone.? As for KVH, and aside from extolling the quality of their offerings, Rodri- guez told MarineNews in June, KVH is, in our experience, the lowest cost broadband provider out there today. They do a great job of simplifying pricing plans for operations.?INTANGIBLES Steve Grif? n maintains that there are many layers to the broadband onion. He explains, The market has showed me two things; Crew Welfare is extremely important, and budgets are very tight. What really needed to be done was for a solutions provider to offer an easier way for operators and owners to manage their communica- tions. In many instances, least cost routing (utilizing multiple platforms for communications ? with an order of priority being in place) has helped overcome these issues. KVH V-series IP products all come with least cost routing built in, so that the company can offer a certain level of usage to op- erations and crew based on the cur- rent connection. If the customer is us- ing the V-series product as back up to an existing cellular network (for out of coverage areas only), they can limit the amount of users and / or data con-sumption on the satellite connections ? however leave it wide open for all on the cellular connection.?KVHs Commbox technology can also allow IT and HR managers to control what type of content is avail- able on their vessels ? should they wish to block certain website cat- egories all together (regardless of the connection ? cellular or mini-VSAT). These types of solutions allow manag- ers to truly manage their vessels com- munications the way it is managed within their of? ces. Grif? n adds, At the end of the day, the vessels are of- ? ces, and most likely the biggest assets that these companies own.? BOATRACS AND KVHThe Boatracs / KVH partnership is a curious one. With Boatracs already providing a narrow band solution in- house for their customers to transmit date back and forth, customers al- ready have exactly what they need to get the job done. Using the Boatracs narrow band solution, customers get the bene? t of a slow, but extremely reliable connection. On the other hand, and with sophisticated engine monitoring software and other data demands evolving for this industry, the need for what Irwin Rodriguez calls mission critical, 24/7? informa- tion is growing. Accordingly, so is the customer demand for SATCOM and broadband solutions. We are very excited to integrate KVHs industry-leading mini-VSAT Broadband service with Boatracs software for our customer base,? said Irwin Rodriguez, President and CEO of BoatracsJuly 201334 MNMN July2013 Layout 32-42.indd 346/28/2013 10:40:22 AM