Vizada Celebrates 10th Anniversary of SkyFile Mail Messaging Solution

SkyFile evolves to become advanced messaging tool

At the SMM tradeshow in Hamburg, Vizada, the largest independent provider of mobile satellite services, celebrated the 10th anniversary of its messaging solution, SkyFile Mail.

SkyFile Mail was originally launched at the SMM trade show in 2000 and over the last 10 years, has developed from a basic email client to an advanced messaging software tool for communications via Inmarsat, Iridium and Thuraya satellite terminals. The latest version of SkyFile Mail (v8) is due to be launched in October and will offer all the features and benefits of a state-of-the-art messaging tool, providing reliable and cost-effective emails, e-faxes and SMS communications, whilst still being free of charge with no monthly fee or licence costs.

Today, more than 12,000 customers are using SkyFile Mail. Suitable for users at sea and on land, an average of more than 3 million messages per month are sent, resulting in almost 40 million messages sent per year via SkyFile Mail. In addition, almost 2 million SMS messages are sent or received per year.

With a growth of more than 15% on IP traffic per month, SkyFile Mail is proving a vital messaging tool for I4 Inmarsat services, notably Inmarsat FleetBroadband, as well as Iridium OpenPort, providing a reliable and cost-effective service to the IP focused maritime user.

The new SkyFile Mail version (v8) will come with a fresh and even more user-friendly and intuitive front end design. Moreover, it will provide ‘Split Billing’ for IP services, allowing a convenient and transparent split of IP traffic for the different users. The new SkyFile Mail will also provide prepaid messaging via Vizada’s Universal Card for I4 Inmarsat services. Users, notably crew members, can simply use SkyFile Mail for their email and SMS communications whilst benefiting from control over their communications budget at pre-defined costs. This also means crew members will only require one card for phone and email communications.

The new version of SkyFile Mail’s unique ‘My Mail’ feature will allow crew members to customise their individual prepaid sub-accounts to communicate in their own language. Each sub-account can be configured in nine different languages such as: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Japanese, Chinese, and Russian. Messages can be sent or received in all globally available languages simultaneously, enabling users to switch easily from one language to the other.

Users of My Mail will also be able to benefit from its portability. Crew members can easily use their e-mail accounts from any location, e.g., while on shore leave or when joining a new crew on a different vessel, whilst all configurations and settings remain unchanged.

Due to the success of the SkyFile Mail, Vizada has developed additional SkyFile family members to complete the maritime messaging portfolio. Examples include SkyFile Weather, software which provides weather forecasts for merchant ships, fishing and pleasure boats via email, and SkyFile Anti Virus, software that ensures remote computers and even Local Area Networks are protected against any type of malicious software (malware).