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NEW ZEALAND – Global GPS tracking company Spider Tracks Ltd has just launched two-way messaging between aircraft and those on the ground using it’s spidertracks aircraft tracking system.
The New Zealand-based company has launched spidertxt to accompany it’s portable, satellite-based tracking system, offering clients a simple communications solution that can be used to communicate from anywhere in the world, via the Iridium satellite network.
Spidertracks sales director Bruce Bartley says fleet operators and commercial pilots will particularly benefit from the new service. “The great thing about satellite texting is that it will work from anywhere. You’ll be able to text people from the other side of the world from places that don’t have cellphone cover. That’s particularly important for those who need to communicate with their pilots when they’re in hard to reach places – like the bottom of the Grand Canyon for example.
“It will also work better than satellite voice communication in those places because they system uses Short Burst Data so doesn’t require the signal to be as strong as voice communication does. And it’s cheaper.”
He says other systems rely on a special keypad in the cockpit. “One of the benefits of the spidertxt system is that it works with normal cellphones – as long as they are compatible with the system. And you can text through the system to other cellphones. Our philosophy is to keep everything as simple as we can for our clients and this is all about making their lives easier.”
A Windows compatible PDA equipped with easily downloadable spidertxt software, will link to the Bluetooth spider so pilots can send and receive texts from the ground – either between the operations base or to and from other cellphones via the spidertracks website. The first release is for Windows compatible PDAs only, with software to enable a range of cellphones, including the iPhone, to talk to the system will be released soon.
Spidertracks tracking solutions for land and air are sold in more than 30 countires providing a simple real-time tracking solution for private pilots, fleets and land baed-operators. The portable tracking device with integrated antenna can be moved between assets as required and tracks accessed in real-time via the internet at spidertracks.com. Spidertracks with spiderwatch active tracking provides an alternative to locator beacons with its automatic alerting system that sends text and email alerts within minutes of an accident.