While satellite services boast their ability to keep users connected where traditional services can’t reach, one typically does not think about the inside of a volcano as a place where satellite technology is needed. But that is where Iridium satellite phones using supplied by Roadpost Inc. will be heading later this month.

The satellite phones will be making the trip to the Erta Val volcano in the Danakil Desert in Ethiopia in the coming weeks as part of an expedition led by Canada’s storm chaser George Kourounis

Kourounis “is a well-known weather chaser and he has done expeditions related to all sorts of weather and geographic events,” Morris Shawn, president and CEO of Roadpost told Satellite News. “He is going to visit this volcano in Ethiopia and we’re providing him the satellite services that he will use that during that expedition. The expedition will be featured on Discovery Channel Canada.”

But volcanic exploration is but one place Roadpost satellite phones have gone. In fact, the company is building a niche business on catering to adventure seekers.

“It is kind of a growing thing,” Shawn said. “I think as people are traveling more and getting more adventurous in their travel. We’ve had our phones on Mt. Everest, on Mt. Kilimanjaro, in the Antarctic, in the Galapagos.”

And Roadpost’s service offerings are not just limited to voice services.

“Another interesting application where we’ve provided data services or GPS location services in conjunction with Iridium was for some adventure races,” Shawn said. “One recently was in Argentina last month. The Iridium device was used to track the location of participants and where they are going and how they are as well as for communications for emergencies and otherwise.”

Serving the needs of thrill seekers has helped to build Roadpost’s subscriber base. Shawn said his business is about evenly split between short-term rentals of satellite phone equipment and longer-term subscribers. “On the satellite services side, we have approximately 2,000 subscribers and we do hundreds of short-term transactions a month,” he said.

Shawn credits the proliferation of wireless phones as a driver for his satellite phone business. “Wireless is such an essential part of everyone’s daily life right now. They are looking for it no matter where they are going.”

(Morris Shawn, Roadpost, [email protected])