[Satellite TODAY 09-23-10] Eutelsat and telecommunications service provider SpeedCast have expanded the reach of their maritime broadband service coverage to include the Mediterranean and Caribbean regions, the companies announced Sept. 22.
   The coverage expansion will be supported by the integration of 60-centimeter Ku-band antennas in Eutelsat’s global network, which also includes 1-meter Ku-band and 2.4-meter C-band systems. The 60-centimeter marine antennas were designed for small-to-mid-sized vessels such as yachts, fishing and coast guard vessels, which operate along coastlines and regional waters.
   The service provides customers with access to SpeedCast and Eutelsat’s Smart monitoring and asset tracking solution as well as the SpeedTalk VOIP service, the SpeedCam remote video surveillance service and the SpeedStar WAN optimization service.
   Like the other antennas used to provide the maritime service, the 60-centimeter antennas also will use DVB-S2 encoding for bandwidth optimization and adaptive coding and modulation for optimized power utilization and consistent performance in all weather conditions.