Insight | How Inmarsat’s connectivity was a lifeline for new world record on the ‘Road of Hell’

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How Inmarsat’s connectivity was a lifeline for new world record on the ‘Road of Hell’

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Inmarsat’s connectivity helped to power a new Cape to Cape world record chase across 19 countries in just nine days. Team driver and blogger Sam Roach explains we helped share their adventure and ensure their safety in some of the most remote and inhospitable locations.

Cape to Cape in nine days, 4 hours and 9 minutes! I am proud to be part of a team of three courageous guys that set a new world record on 20 September, 2015, driving 19,000 km from Cape Agulhas, the Southernmost tip of Africa, to Nordkapp in northern Norway, the Northernmost point of the European mainland.

Throughout the variable onslaught of geographical and political challenges we faced on our journey, Inmarsat’s connectivity meant that we could stay in full contact with the outside world.

As we travelled through some of the planet’s most remote and inhospitable locations, under harsh conditions; including places where there was huge potential for political unrest, we drew immense comfort from knowing that we could rely on Inmarsat to provide us with that instant, emergency lifeline to the outside world, wherever we were.

We had originally set ourselves the demanding objective of driving across Africa, through Asia and then right across Europe in 10 days, in our specially prepared Volkswagen Touareg V6 TDI. Our challenging route ran from South Africa via Kenya and Tanzania through Sudan, Israel and Jordan, then across central Europe, before crossing the Scandinavian countries to reach our final destination in Norway.

The record bid was headed-up by renowned long-distance driver and project leader Rainer Zietlow, along with experienced cameraman Marius Biela who was responsible for sending a flow of stunning photography and video footage throughout the trip. My job was to keep the outside world updated with our progress via daily blogs, social media and various sponsor updates.

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All three of us relied entirely on our on-board Inmarsat BGAN service, accessed by a fixed, omnidirectional Cobham SATCOM antenna mounted on the roof of our VW Touareg.

With access to reliable comms-on-the-move voice and data connectivity, we could do our jobs properly during the nine day experience – emailing, sending photos, posting blogs and uploading video for use on the website; all while driving at 130kph speeds! This vastly enriched the excitement and involvement of our many fans and supporters around the world, bringing them as close as possible to the sights and experiences we were having.

Our data usage was predictably varied, from uploading 20mb photo files while travelling through the Sahara desert, sending blogs from the highlands of Ethiopia, and using the BGAN telephone connection to make urgent enquiries about border crossing conditions ahead of us.

Throughout the trip, the Touareg also become a rolling innovation centre using Inmarsat IsatData Pro, a low data rate machine-to-machine service to monitor and track the Touareg’s journey and send back data to the website’s tracking map every five minutes so fans worldwide could chart the team’s progress.

With Inmarsat’s one global network, there were no roaming charges for us to be concerned about as the vehicle travelled from one country to the next, with the constant data transfer of both car and team performance throughout.

So, I’d like to say thank you Inmarsat for helping us to deliver a new world record!

About the author


Sam Roach is the Managing Director of RacingLine Ltd, which runs Volkswagen Racing UK and the FIA Formula 4 programme in the UK. In addition, Sam and his team develop a wide range of performance parts upgrades which are sold worldwide, and run many of the Volkswagen Group UK’s corporate events.

The Touareg Cape to Cape 2.0 Challenge was the first endurance challenge Sam had been involved in however he was well prepared for the driving demands from his many years of competitive racing and rallying.