Thursday, 08^th November 2001

Following the recent addition of the Pacific Ocean Region to its capabilities, Satamatics Ltd, the specialist supplier of satellite-based telematics information services, announces that Zunibal SL of Spain has already placed its first orders for service delivery. Zunibal, an application service provider within the fishing industry, offers fish-locating services to tuna fleets by means of its Tunabal sonar-equipped buoys, which utilise Satamatics' service and technology to communicate with the tuna boat skippers. Satamatics has been selected as Zunibal's preferred supplier of satellite-based telematics solutions. This further reinforces the company's position as currently the only supplier able to offer seamless global coverage, providing its customers with an efficient and economical single-service worldwide solution.

Sr Javier Ormaetxea, President of Zunibal SL, commented: "We are very excited by this agreement with Satamatics. This is the first time that a reliable telematics service has been available for the Asia Pacific region, and with seamless coverage throughout the world. Our company can now offer its Tunabal Sonar Buoys for use by tuna fishing fleets anywhere in the Pacific, and indeed across all the world's oceans. Around half our tuna fleet customers require coverage in the Pacific Ocean, and we can fulfil this demand immediately."

Satamatics' global telematics service enables position tracking and two-way messaging, as well as the status monitoring and control of remote assets and installations. The company's end-to-end solution utilises the Inmarsat D+ system and ranges from the supply and programming of remote satellite communicators mounted on a ship, vehicle or fixed asset, through the transmission and reception of data by Satamatics-equipped Land Earth Stations, to the processing of the data prior to end-user delivery via specialist application service providers such as Zunibal.

Zunibal SL, based near Bilbao in northern Spain, is a market leader in satellite-based fish-finding services. The company supplies its products and services to hundreds of tuna fishing boats worldwide, with a large percentage of its customer base operating in the Pacific. Zunibal's principal product is its Tunabal buoy, which is typically carried in quantity by tuna fishing boats. Each buoy is equipped with a solar-powered satellite communicator and an echo-sounder fish-finding system. The buoys are released by fishing vessels during their voyage and drift along ocean currents, tending to congregate in areas of high plankton concentration, which also represent good feeding grounds for fish. When a Tunabal buoy detects the presence of a shoal of fish, it transmits the location - together with information about drift direction, speed and water temperature - back to the fishing vessel's skipper. Zunibal's service can therefore contribute to the speed and efficiency with which a fishing vessel can locate its catch, with resultant savings in time at sea and fuel consumption. (For more information on Zunibal, please visit www.zunibal.com)

Satamatics

Satamatics' dynamic approach to Inmarsat D+ based applications sets a new standard for end-to-end telematics services, with the company addressing the entire telematics value chain and enabling the efficient and cost-effective delivery of a wide range of application-specific information, direct to an end-user's desktop via the Internet. The company has installed equipment in strategically-placed satellite land earth stations in the UK and New Zealand, to provide genuinely global coverage, and has a data-processing centre in London, UK.

Based in Tewkesbury in the UK, Satamatics Ltd is part of the Richtec plc group of companies, which is active across a range of communications, electronics and process control technologies and has an annual turnover of £17 million. The group includes Ottercom Ltd (www.ottercom.co.uk) - marketing the range of STORM mobile satellite terminals for high-speed data operation via the Inmarsat Global Area Network (GAN), and TRL Technology Ltd - a leading developer of advanced radio and satellite communications solutions. The group has a successful 10-year history of close involvement with Inmarsat, with key contributions including the technology and products that sit at the heart of Inmarsat's call billing and quality of service monitoring systems. This technology forms the core of Satamatics' Telematics Information Service.

Inmarsat D+ Service

Inmarsat Ltd, a strategic partner of Satamatics, offers businesses a range of mobile satellite communications solutions from voice to 64kbit/s data services. Inmarsat D+ enables the remote tracking of mobile assets including trucks, ships and trains, as well as the gathering of data to provide status information, for parameters such as speed, fuel levels and direction. It is a two-way system that allows, for example, status and control information between a transport manager's desktop and a truck in transit, and information about flow, and remote control capabilities, between a pipeline installation and a central monitoring station. The D+ system utilises the Inmarsat network of nine established geostationary satellites to provide reliable, stable coverage across the globe. Inmarsat Ltd has over 20 years of experience in designing, implementing and operating satellite networks. Visit www.inmarsat.com for more information.

Telematics Market

Telematics is the use of computers to receive, store and distribute information at a distance over a telecommunications system (The National Organisation for Adult Learning ''NIACE''1995). Telematics is an emerging technology and is set to realise exponential growth with the projected market valued $41 billion worldwide by 2010 (UBS Warburg).

For further information, please contact: