France Telecom Mobile Satellite Communications (FTMSC) is launching a pair of pricing initiatives to encourage commercial shipping companies to take the Connexion by Boeing maritime service.

The first offers will allow customers to sample the Connexion by Boeing high-speed Internet service for four months service before making a decision to commercially deploy the service. This offer includes 2000 minutes of data access, 100 minutes of voice, live global television (scheduled to be introduced later this year) and access to the Connexion by Boeing online service management tools.

The second initiative will allow qualifying customers signing a standard service agreement for the service in 2006 to receive a 30 percent discount off the regular monthly service fee through 2008.

Connexion by Boeing maritime service provides data rates up to 256 kilobits per second from a vessel to the satellite and data rates of up to 5 megabits per second from the satellite to a vessel. The high-speed data rate allows multiple, simultaneous users to access the Internet, corporate intranet and e-mail as well as obtain additional information for vessel management such as weather, routing and port information.