Landis & Gyr Communications and Nera AS teamed up to develop a satellite payphone solution that will provide essential services to areas inaccessible to conventional telecommunications. The new payphones are ideally suited for commercial and cruise ships, offshore drilling rigs, planes, and other outdoor installations.

Geneva, Switzerland, February 18, 1999 - Landis & Gyr Communications, a leading supplier of public access terminals and secure electronic payment solutions worldwide, and Nera AS have jointly developed a satellite payphone solution that provides truly global coverage, working over most of the planet’s surface. The new payphone, part of the Nera WorldPhone range, is ideal for people and organisations that operate in remote areas where traditional telecommunications service is severely restricted or non-existent. The first units of the new payphones have already been produced and will be installed on oil rigs.

Ideally suited for a diverse range of applications such as commercial and cruise ships, offshore drilling rigs, planes, mining sites, mountain passes, and other outdoor installations, the satellite payphones will offer previously unavailable access for people. For example, the satellite payphone allows a ship’s crew members and passengers to easily communicate with family, friends, and business associates anywhere around the world, by simply using a pre-paid telephone card. And, for business and pleasure travellers, calling home or the office from any part of the world will be possible using the pre-paid telephone card.

The innovative satellite payphone solution relies on Landis & Gyr Communications’ Pulsar chip card payphone, connected to the Inmarsat network via a Nera AS transceiver. By inserting a prepaid card, the user can make a call to any part of the world and the card is debited according to an internal tariff installed in the payphone. Pulsar payphones are a low-cost chip card payphone solution, equipped with the Phoenix security module that locally authenticates third generation chip cards.

Nera AS is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of satellite communication equipment. Inmarsat is a global provider of satellite communications..

Landis & Gyr Communications is recognized as the world’s preferred payphone supplier, with over 3 million public and private payphones installed in more than 70 countries. Landis & Gyr Communications is also one of the leading manufacturers of chipcards for various fields of applications and a principal member of the Global Chipcard Alliance (GCA). Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Landis & Gyr Communications employs about 1’500 people worldwide.