02-01-2011 - The Dakar Rally - the world's toughest off-road race - will rely on IsatPhone Pro for communication.

Various race teams, security organisations and the media will use Inmarsat's new global handheld satellite phone throughout the 16-day, 5,600-mile (9,000km) challenge in South America.

The extreme conditions - including remote desert tracks and twisting mountain passes - will prove the ultimate road test for IsatPhone Pro when the rally starts in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 1 January.

Field support
Inmarsat service provider Tesacom is providing the rally with over 75 of the satphones, plus training and field support.

And Inmarsat is sponsoring Brazil's Petrobas Lubrax team with IsatPhone Pro handsets and a Thrane & Thrane Explorer 500 BGAN terminal.

Using Inmarsat, the competitors are able to keep in contact with their support teams from the rally's remotest points.

Share footage
And they can also share footage of the race with the media and rally fans worldwide.

The Petrobas Lubrax team has competed in the Dakar Rally since 1988, taking 21 podium positions, including eight first places.

This year they are in a field of 430 cars, trucks, motorbikes and quad bikes, driven by a mix of amateurs and professionals.

Over the Andes
The drivers must negotiate a punishing array of roads, tracks and dunes, as the rally races across Argentina and over the Andes to the northern-most tip of Chile, and back to Buenos Aires via San Juan.

At its most extreme, they must cross the vast Atacama Desert and make a dizzying descent into Iquique on Chile's coast.

The first Paris-Dakar rally took place in 1979. The threat of terrorist attacks on the route through Mauritania saw the 2008 event cancelled. The rally moved to South America the following year.

Dakar Rally 2011:www.dakar.com
Petrobas Lubrax team:www.brasildakar.com.br/site/index.php
Tesacom:www.tesacom.net