On an island where terrestrial-based, conventional Internet access is often cost prohibitive and unreliable for educators, Mobile Universe today announced its satellite-delivered broadband service has been selected by the Puerto Rico Department of Education to connect more than 1500 Puerto Rico schools to the Internet. Mobile Universe is providing affordable connectivity, and, as a result, the sky is the limit for thousands of students island-wide, who have the Internet at their fingertips just in time for the new school year.

Compex Corporation's Mobile Universe, the project's primary contractor and provider of wireless communication solutions, expects that 1539 schools will be connected to its satellite IP platform by September 2004. Participating schools are enjoying two-way broadband service via small satellite antenna, which is also capable of providing voice-over-IP (VOIP) telephone service between the schools and the Puerto Rico Department of Education.

"The satellite-delivered Internet access from Mobile Universe is breaking down educational barriers across Puerto Rico," said Harry G. Garcia, CEO Mobile Universe. "As a result, teachers and students will have incredible access to content filter protected information without limitations, which we could only imagine until now."

"The bandwidth efficiency of the equipment, coupled with its scalability and ease of installation make it perfectly suited for this application," said Harry G. Garcia.

The expertise of Mobile Universe and the full support of PRDE will enable Mobile Universe to provide a cost effective turnkey broadband solution to Puerto Rico's school system.

The hub router, enterprise-class remote Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) and iDS software provide connectivity for IP based services such as data, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and internet connectivity. This VSAT network can provide data at speeds from 64 kbps to 4.2 Mbps from the remote site and up to 9 Mbps from the hub to the remotes. Each remote terminal includes a built-in router and is packaged with features such as link encryption, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) acceleration, Domain Name Server (DNS) caching and real-time traffic management Quality of Service (QoS) prioritization all in one box. It is particularly gratifying to see this technology deployed in a school system where this high-speed connectivity is going to make a very visible and positive impact on people's lives.

About Mobile Universe

Mobile Universe is a subsidiary of COMPEX Corporation, www.compex.com, a privately held company based in Springfield, Virginia. Mobile Universe and COMPEX provide mobile and wireless computing solutions and access to the Internet via satellite. COMPEX has been a provider of information technology services to the U.S. Department of Defense since 1985. More information is available at www.mobileuniversepr.com.