SITA partners with rohill to serve ATI’S $220m PMR market

SITA partners with rohill to serve the ATI’S $220mprofessional mobile radio market

GENEVA – 14 January 2009 –SITA, the specialist provider of IT communications solutions to the air transport industry, today announced a partnership with The Netherlands-based company Rohill, a dedicated developer of professional mobile communication systems for mission-critical applications. Together, the companies will provide tailored solutions to the air transport industry’s $220m professional mobile radio market.

In a move that strengthens SITA’s unique Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) offering to the air transport industry (ATI), SITA through this partnership will offer airports, airlines and ground handlers a solution that is designed specifically to their needs and based on an open, scalable and flexible platform.

Rene Azoulai, SITA Senior Vice President Communication Services, said: “Our decision to partner with Rohill was based on a number of factors including their excellent airport experience in both Europe and Asia Pacific, their agility and flexibility and most notably for their open platform which makes use of open source technology.

“The fact that Rohill’s equipment is an open platform and that they make use of softswitch technology, means that integration with our existing applications and voice communications is simplified, and that in the future modifications and upgrades will be easily made.”

The joint offering called, SITA Professional Mobile Radio, works seamlessly with SITA’s IP telephony service SITA Voice Exchange but also integrates with the existing voice solution of the customer. Going forward it will integrate with wireless technologies including WiFi and WiMAX.

Roland van der Boom, Rohill Managing Director, said: “Through this partnership we are delivering a seamless communications platform for the ATI that will enable industry-specific applications to be delivered quickly and efficiently. Our partnership with SITA will combine their industry experience with our equipment expertise to deliver effective and cost-efficient solutions to our customers.”

One of the innovative airport-specific applications which the partnership will deliver is automated vehicle location system (AVLS); this optimizes the security, safety and use of equipment at the airport by using the Global Positioning System (GPS) to track movements and to issue alerts when equipment is in the wrong location.

Other airport applications include a sophisticated guard control system and Flight-Oriented dialling, which is a sophisticated group dialling system based on flight numbers that ensures efficient data exchange between all parties working on specific flights.

Rohill’s network equipment which will be used by SITA is a vital component of the PMR service; rarely seen by end users its importance is often overlooked but by using this flexible equipment with its open platform based on Linux, SITA will be able to provide the most relevant and targeted services to airports, airlines and ground handlers.