Bandwidth Intensive Applications News

Satellite-based connectivity has always played a critical role for the maritime sector. As the communications expectations of ship owners, passengers and crews continue to grow, maritime service providers are seeing a transformation in the type and quantity of applications that need to be supported at sea. The advent of VSAT broadband services is driving a shift away from traditional, low-level L-band connections that ship operators have relied upon for decades. VSAT services are preferred to respond to the demand for high-speed broadband that can support bandwidth-intensive applications.

VT iDirect announce that OmniAccess S.L., communications provider to superyacht & megayacht owners, has successfully launched a live satellite communications network built on iDirect's latest iDX 3.2 software and incorporating the high-performance X7 remote. The network, which was tested at Intelsat's Fuchstadt teleport over the IS-902 satellite, reached a data throughput rate of 50 Mbps. OmniAccess now plans a critical upgrade to its BroadBEAM ULTRA satellite service that will deliver higher throughput rates of 50 to 100 Mbps. iDirect is a world leader in satellite-based IP communications technology anf OmniAccess is the first of its customers to launch a commercial service based on iDX 3.2 and X7.

Stratos Introduces StratosMAX II Nomadic, a New Broadband Service for the Energy Community in the Gulf of Mexico. New service offers voice and high-speed data in Vessel and Transportable versions. Bethesda, Maryland (October 20, 2011) – Stratos Global, the leading global provider of advanced mobile and fixed-site remote communications solutions, today introduced StratosMAX II Nomadic, a new version of its popular StratosMAX II broadband service offered via the Stratos microwave network for the offshore energy community in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) region.

Telenor Satellite Services, a subsidiary of Telenor of Norway, announced that it is developing a new broadband communications line of services for the maritime industry enabling seamless global roaming for data and voice communications at sea. OceanRoam will provide vessels worldwide Internet and telephone connectivity around-the-clock using the ships' assigned IP addresses and telephone numbers regardless of location. Telenor's OceanRoam will offer always-on Internet access and IP-based service at a fixed monthly price. The service will enable voice services and unlimited data transfer for ship's business and crew communications and will feature a variety of committed information rate (CIR) service levels up to 128 kbps.