...Costa Rica following three years of intense negotiations involving the Costa Rican government, United States Trade Representative (USTR) and Ohio Senator Rob Portman, an architect of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

“This is a great day not only for VSAT, but for U.S. businesses in general,” said Mike Kister, President of VSAT Systems. “Through the granting of our license by the Costa Rican government, we become the first U.S. company to enter a marketplace where there had been nothing but a government monopoly for decades.”

Datzap will offer customers access to VSAT Systems’ extensive satellite uplink facility and infrastructure, which will provide direct access to the U.S. Internet backbone, guaranteeing high performance and security not currently available from local Costa Rican resellers of their government’s satellite system. Datzap is authorized to begin offering service immediately, and is already actively recruiting Costa Rican resellers—allocating more than 100 million colones (roughly 200,000 U.S. dollars) in hardware and service incentives for potential resellers. VSAT Systems is able to offer extensive coverage using three of the most sought after geostationary satellites in the Western Hemisphere, allowing Datzap to provide service anywhere in Central America and the Caribbean. Once up and running, Datzap will quickly engage markets such as cellular backhaul, agriculture, banking, disaster response and the retail grocery and restaurant trade.