Spacenet Inc. today announced that it has launched its line of StarBand Nova satellite Internet services for 2008, offering higher speeds and new PC professional support services for small office/home office (SOHO) and small business customers. StarBand, Spacenet’s two-way, always-on high-speed satellite Internet service, is available throughout the United States, including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
The new StarBand services, Nova 1000 and Nova 1500, replace the previous StarBand Nova generation, Nova Pro and Ultimate, and offer speeds that are 50 percent faster and new value-added features. The services are aimed at SOHO and small business users looking for a reliable, high performance, always-on broadband satellite Internet connection, and are based on Spacenet’s SkyEdge VSAT platform with speeds of up to 1.5 Mbps download and 256 kbps upload. The higher-end StarBand Nova 1500 service offers faster speeds than the previous higher-end StarBand Nova Ultimate service and costs 20 percent less per month.
In addition, Spacenet is providing new PC professional support services that are either not offered with competitor services or are offered with an additional charge. Professional services include three hours of live technical support per year for advanced services such as PC and router configuration for home networking, set-up of e-mail clients and web browsers and support for launching firewalls and antivirus software. Other value-added services include: 10 free hours of dial access per month; virus protection; spam filtering; access to the StarBand Member Portal; 24X7 online support; up to 15 email accounts; and up to 500 MB of web storage space.
The new line of StarBand Nova services is now available. Later this year, an upgrade program will be offered to enable existing customers to benefit from the faster speeds and higher-performance of the new Nova services.
Spacenet Senior Vice President of Marketing & Corporate Development David Myers said, “Last year, Spacenet reinvented its StarBand product line with the launch of the Nova series representing a dramatic improvement in price/performance. For 2008, Spacenet is building on that momentum. With StarBand Nova 1000 and Nova 1500, Spacenet is once again proving that not all satellite broadband services are created equal. In addition to providing complete US coverage (including Alaska, Hawaii and the Caribbean) StarBand is moving up the value curve by providing more of the business class features that discerning customers demand for their small office broadband connectivity.”
About Spacenet®
Founded in 1981, Spacenet Inc. is a leading provider of high-performance satellite and hybrid terrestrial networking solutions for business, government and home/small office customers in the United States and worldwide. Spacenet has a longstanding tradition of industry leadership and innovation, and today has deployed more than 100,000 network endpoints for customers including many Fortune 500 companies and major government agencies. Spacenet's services include its custom satellite/hybrid network solutions for enterprise and government; Connexstar™ VSAT services for primary, backup and disaster recovery networks; and StarBand® broadband Internet by satellite. Spacenet is based in McLean, Virginia, and operates its own end-to-end services infrastructure including network management, field services and teleport facilities in McLean; Atlanta, Georgia; and Chicago, Illinois. Spacenet is a wholly owned subsidiary of Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq:GILT). Visit Spacenet at www.spacenet.com.
Contacts:
Media Contact:
Jill Robins, 703-848-1247
jill.robins@spacenet.com
