In a previous Spotlight, we highlighted the use of satellite telephones to help keep soldiers in Iraq in touch with their families. WorldGate Communications Inc. is looking to take that concept one step further and is working on deploying a videophone that uses VSAT networks to bring soldiers closer to their loved ones, no matter what part of the world they might be in.

WorldGate is in the business of developing, designing and manufacturing videophones for personal and business use. Until now, the company focused its videophone development to work on connectivity over landline connections. “We have conquered [the technical issues] using landlines, so we said ‘Let’s take a look and see what it would look like over satellite,'” WorldGate Founder and CEO Hal Krisbergh told Satellite News. And the current conflict in the Middle East gave the company the inspiration to look up for another avenue to deploy its technology.

“It was the military that really kicked us off,” Krisbergh said. “We really wanted to do something for the soldiers and clearly video telephony is a solution. Soldiers have not seen their spouses and kids, so we really wanted to help.”

So the company began work to see how its videophone service would function over satellite and last week, the company staked its claim as being the first one to complete a videophone call over satellite. The call went from WorldGate’s Philadelphia-area headquarters to a facility in Virginia Beach, Va., using the Motorola Ojo Personal Videophone. Krisbergh declined to name which VSAT service provider was used to test the technology. However, he expressed satisfaction over the demonstration’s results.

“We did the test, and we did it several times and we were amazed,” Krisbergh said. “Not only were we able to hold to our technology in terms of a smooth , we were able to hold the delay down to a half-second. It is more noticeable than the one sixth of a second delay on landlines, but the half-second was very much acceptable. We think [this] opens up a whole spectrum of communication that just is not available today.”

Krisbergh said WorldGate is working with the U.S. military to get this technology deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

—-Gregory Twachtman

(Jamie Press, WorldGate, 215/354-5186)