Communicating from the Red Sea will depend on a variety of circumstances.

Polycom have sponsored the use of a satellite phone and a high speed satellite data transfer device.  The phone uses the Iriduim satellite system.  This will allow constant voice contact with schools involved in the project if the other system fails.

The other system uses a high speed data transfer process and is linked to a different satellite system. This will allow for the possibility of digitalk (video conferencing) to WMnet schools via the Birmingham Grid for Learning (BGfL).  A conferencing area has been set up on the BGfL ( See below) that will allow up to ten schools to simultaneously link up to the expeditions own Polycom digitalk system. There is however one problem with this means of communication. The boat has to be stationary and not moving to allow a stable connection to the satellite. As there are patches of land in the Red Sea and the water can sometimes be lake-like the possibilities of connectivity are thought to be realistic. It now seems very unlikely that conferencing will be possible because of things called 'firewalls'. We will endeavor to overcome this problem. In the meantime almost synchronous communication will be available through the web pages.

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