MANILA - Smart Communications Inc., the mobile phone unit of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), has gained a controlling stake in Blue Ocean Wireless (BOW), an Irish firm that provides maritime communications services.

PLDT told the local bourse that Smart will invest an additional $6.26 million in BOW, increasing its equity ownership to 51% from 28.3%.

In a separate statement, BOW confirmed that Smart and 2 other companies have committed to invest an additional $7.5 million in the company to speed up the launch of FleetBroadband (FBB), its latest service offering.

With FBB, BOW said officers and crew of merchant marine vessels can make and receive voice calls, send and receive text messages and emails, and access the Internet even while on transit in deep sea water.

"FleetBroadband is the first maritime communications service to provide cost-effective global broadband data and voice simultaneously through a compact antenna. FBB provides unprecedented connectivity between vessels and the shore, regardless of your global position or conditions at sea," BOW said. The two other investors infusing fresh capital in BOW are Japanese firm NTT DoComo Inc. and Irish communications firm Altobridge Limited.

The investments will help enhance its service offering within the merchant maritime sector, BOW said. The 2-year old firm has just completed its FBB testing, making the service commercially available to potential customers.

BOW has established itself as the leading provider of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) services to the merchant maritime sector. At present, the company has a customer base and order book of over 650 vessels.