SeaNet provides broadband access to Cup yachts at sea

By ADAM GIFFORD

America's Cup syndicates and spectator craft can now get high speed internet access in the Hauraki Gulf thanks to a team up between wireless network provider Broadcast Communications Limited and start-up company SeaNet.

SeaNet operations manager Scott Maynard said his company has developed a waterproof router under the Aquatude brand, which is leased to boats for $550 a month plus data charges.

"We have been live with this for the past year, but we have been keeping our heads down testing the systems and getting everything sorted," Maynard said.

"We have been working with some of the America's Cup syndicates, and we are now talking to the super yachts as they arrive."

Some of the syndicates and yachts had wireless internet connections for the last regatta, but service was slow an unreliable and the cost was high - upwards of $25,000.

Maynard said SeaNet pursued a relationship with BCL because it was best situated to provide the sort of high speed wireless backbone the service needed.

"Wireless is so expensive and the infrastructure required is so huge a lot of companies have not survived because they can not recover their initial investment.

"BCL has the networks, it has the sites set up and the relationships we need."

Maynard said SeaNet will be able to offer connectivity on the water at up to 1.5Mbps, more than 10 times the speed offered on Telecom's CDMA data network.

Because the company was Auckland-based it targeted the America's Cup as the way to make an initial splash.

"After that commercial shipping will be our major focus - fishing boats, ferries and so on. They all want internet connectivity at a cheap rate," Maynard said.

SeaNet has also installed a wide area network for Whale Watch Kaikoura, allowing its boats to send live streaming video back to the shore base.

BCL managing director Geoff Lawson said the contract with SeaNet was an example of the way BCL was positioning itself as a wholesaler of wireless network bandwidth to anyone who is able to use it.

"SeaNet is an entrepreneurial company that is seizing the opportunity to exploit both New Zealand's love of boating and our early adopter love for new technology," Lawson said.

SeaNet

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