text: KeyIdea agrees deal to bring One Horizon VoIP to ships - Digital Ship - The world leader in maritime IT news
  The Aishuo app is already popular in China
  {mprestriction ids="1,2"}One Horizon already operates its own Chinese retail VoIP service, branded Aishuo, and develops and licenses a bandwidth efficient mobile voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) platform for smartphones. Under this new deal KeyIdea will supply crew-calling services exclusively using the Aishuo platform when its maritime service hits the market.
  KeyIdea will purchase pre-paid calling cards from Aishuo and resell to the crew on board, with the cards able to be topped-up online using the Aishuo App. The calls will be carried through Aishuo's Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) in China and billed to the crew on a pay-as-you-go basis.
  One Horizon has already gained some experience working with other stakeholders in the ship communications market, having previously completed successful maritime deployments with Singtel and with Smart Communications in the Philippines.
  "The expansion of our business into providing satellite services alongside our high quality equipment is expected to deliver increased revenue and better margins for KeyIdea when linked together with a turnkey smartphone VoIP service available in all the App stores in China," said Xiaogang Chen, CEO of KeyIdea.
  "We are really excited about the cooperation with One Horizon and using their unique technologies to improve the welfare of the crew on our fleets."
  With its Chinese roll-out having started in later February 2015, downloads of the Aishuo retail App have already surpassed 7 million across the 20 Chinese Android App stores, including Baidu, Tencent, 360.CN and Xiaomi.
  "We were delighted to be able to showcase our solution to the newest entrant in the satellite sector here in China and with our track record of success in the Philippines and Indonesia, we were confident in winning this contract," said One Horizon Group CEO, Brian Collins.
  "The team worked tirelessly to deliver what is going to be a truly high quality and affordable calling solution for KeyIdea's fleets."{/mprestriction}