US$18m AIS Order

3 Sep 2009 07:00

SOFTWARE RADIO TECHNOLOGY PLC US$18 MILLION AIS ORDER

Software Radio Technology plc ("SRT") is pleased to announce that it has received an order worth US$18 million for its AIS (Automatic Identification System) Class B product.

The Class B units are to be delivered in variable quarterly quantities over a period of three years. The first quarterly delivery has been made and payment received.

The agreement is with an Asia-based customer and the units will be used to meet local demand in a single country arising from a national mandate which will ultimately require up to an estimated 220,000 vessels to be fitted with an AIS device. The current agreement represents only a proportion of this potential market.

Following the mandate of AIS by the International Maritime Organisation on most vessels over 300GT in 2002, AIS became a global technology standard and is now used on a daily basis by many authorities and port operators. Since that time, its ability to identify and track vessels of all sizes precisely irrespective of the weather or topography has driven many countries to place it at the core of their coastal and inland waterway safety and security plans. A number of regions such as India, the EU, Turkey and the USA have announced plans to introduce mandates. This has created a growing global market for AIS devices which SRT's module and product solutions are well positioned to address with a range of high performance, low cost products.

SRT Managing Director, Simon Tucker, said: "Our technology provides the high performance, low cost solution required for this market. We have worked with this partner for several years and are delighted to have concluded this agreement.

"We foresaw the opportunity provided by the global AIS market in 2005 and invested heavily in the development of our AIS technologies and supporting customers to make use of our solutions. This investment has put us in a strong position, both technically and commercially, to benefit from the growth in demand for AIS products in the years to come. Clearly, as this is a relatively new market we can expect periodic delays, however there is no doubt that the market is now moving forward positively. Today's announcement is real evidence of the opportunity that exists."

Enquiries:Enquiries: Software Radio Technology plc +44 (0)1761 409500 Simon Tucker simon.tucker@softwarerad.com Group Managing Director Hanson Westhouse Limited +44 (0) 20 7601 6100 Tim Feather Matthew Johnson