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Communications Requirements News

19 Jan 2021

Arklow Chooses Satcom Global Aura VSAT

(Photo: Satcom Global)

Ireland headquartered ship owner and charterer Arklow Shipping has contracted communications solutions provider Satcom Global to install Aura VSAT across 17 newbuild vessels due for delivery from 2021 onward.The new vessels will be activated on a range of Aura service packages, all with Committed Information Rate for guaranteed service quality, and companion options to suit their different sailing patterns. Ten new C-Class vessels will benefit from unlimited Ku-band connectivity with 4G back-up to complement their short sea shipping requirements and operations close to shore.

09 Oct 2018

APSATCOM to launch IntelsatOne Flex in China

Intelsat announced that APT Mobile Satcom (APSATCOM) will become the first maritime solution partner to offer, in China, IntelsatOne Flex for Maritime services.This agreement will deliver a seamless global maritime network for APSATCOM’s customers, providing unparalleled throughput, improved economics, and easier access to broadband services.Under the new, multi-year agreement, Intelsat will provide IntelsatOne Flex for Maritime services, interconnection, and backhaul to APSATCOM’s data centers. The award-winning IntelsatOne Flex for Maritime platform is a seamlessly integrated managed service that offers multi-layered global coverage…

08 Oct 2018

Intelsat, APSATCOM Launch IntelsatOne Flex Maritime in Asia

Intelsat S.A. announced  that APT Mobile Satcom Ltd. (APSATCOM) will become the first maritime solution partner to offer, in China, IntelsatOne Flex for Maritime services. This agreement will deliver a seamless global maritime network for APSATCOM’s customers, providing unparalleled throughput, improved economics, and easier access to broadband services, the company said.Under the new, multi-year agreement, Intelsat will provide IntelsatOne Flex for Maritime services, interconnection, and backhaul to APSATCOM’s data centers. The award-winning IntelsatOne Flex for Maritime platform is a seamlessly integrated managed service that offers…

20 Jul 2018

Maritime Operators Embrace Digital Transformation

Courtesy of Intelsat

As maritime operators deal with challenging operating conditions, many are embracing digitalization as the most reliable way to lower operational costs and improve vessel efficiency.According to research conducted by Lloyds List Intelligence and Ovum, two-thirds of vessels use digitalization systems onboard. According to the executives surveyed, this is being driven by a desire to improve operating efficiency, with 88 percent already working toward that goal. As part of the process…

21 Feb 2018

Marlink Doubles the Speed for Sealink VSAT Customers

Photo: Marlink

Marlink customers using the Sealink Allowances maritime VSAT service plans can now enjoy without any extra-charge a burst rate, or Maximum Information Rate (MIR), up to 6 Mbps. Providing even faster connectivity and more bandwidth for business operations and crew onboard when network capacity is available, the new MIR is twice as fast as the previous 3 Mbps. Doubling the throughput while keeping pricing unchanged will deliver even more value for money to Marlink’s maritime customers.

22 Nov 2017

Connectivity for Brown Water Operations

Growing options emerge for ever-increasing data and Comms demand. In the United States alone, 625 million tons of cargo is transported along the more than 12,000 miles of commercially navigable waterways each year, moving vital commodities to and from 38 of the nation’s 50 states. The advent of subchapter M has raised the bar significantly for as many as 5,000 inland vessels, both in terms of safety and the need to document and more closely control this tonnage. At the same time, domestic coastal transport and offshore energy support vessels also face growing communications requirements.

27 Oct 2014

Connecting Fishermen to shore

Fishermen on board Chinese coastal fishing vessels can now keep in constant contact with friends, family and colleagues thanks to a brand new application developed exclusively for Inmarsat’s Fleet One service. Created by Beijing Marine communication and Navigation Co. (MCN Beijing), Inmarsat’s largest Distribution Partner in the People’s Republic of China have launched a bespoke chat application for fishermen called ???, or Fish Chat. Fish Chat is the first Fleet One application for the Asian fishing market that has been tested and certified by Inmarsat. “We are delighted that MCN Beijing has developed an application which is fit for purpose for the needs and requirements of the local market and optimises the Fleet One service for their customers” said Ronald Spithout…

22 Jul 2014

New Subsea Fiber-optic Cable to Link N. America & UK

TE SubCom has announced the commencement of the new Hibernia Express submarine cable system. The 4,600 km cable will provide the lowest-latency fiber-optic path between New York and London, connecting Halifax, Nova Scotia and Brean, UK, with terrestrial fiber to extend connectivity to the major metro areas. Hibernia Express will initially launch with 100 Gbps transmission capacity using TE SubCom’s C100 SLTE platform. It will be a 6-fiber-pair submarine cable, with a portion of the fibers optimized for lowest latency and a portion optimized for 100x100 Gbps design capacity. The total cross-sectional design capacity of the cable will be over 53 Tbps.

13 May 2014

New WaveCall-Plus VSAT Bundle for MSC Cargo Italy

Photo coutesy of Marlink

The 124 MSC’s vessels will be the first to benefit from AuroraGlobal, the new all-in-one high throughput maritime VSAT offering. MSC Cargo Italy has contracted Marlink to deliver the new WaveCall Plus high-speed Broadband VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) package for its entire fleet of 124 vessels. WaveCall Plus is part of AuroraGlobal, the new multi-band high-speed initiative launched by Airbus Defence and Space in March 2014. Already using VSAT on board its ships, MSC selected…

10 Jan 2014

More than 100 USCG Vessels Install KVH mini-VSAT

A fast-response cutter of the U.S. Coast Guard is one of several classes of cutters with KVH’s mini-VSAT Broadband systems onboard as the connectivity solution.

The ongoing maritime VSAT installations are part of KVH’s 10-year contract with the U.S. KVH Industries, Inc., said it has surpassed the 100-vessel mark in its 10-year contract to supply the next-generation satellite communications solution for the U.S. Coast Guard’s fleet of small cutters. To date, KVH’s TracPhone V7  systems have been deployed on 105 USCG vessels across eight different classes of cutters, and KVH’s mini-VSAT Broadband service has provided 29.2 terabytes of data and more than 835,000 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) minutes.

02 Jan 2014

Five Minutes With: Tore Morten Olsen, Astrium Services

Astrium Services took a survey of seafarer’s usage of crew communication solutions in the commercial shipping sector to establish a picture of mariner communications requirements. According to Tore Morten Olsen, Head of Maritime Services, Astrium Services, the survey was illuminating in more ways than one, helping to shed light on modern comms usage for onboard business and personal reasons. MLC 2006 is here. What is your sense that ship operators and owners will incorporate an increased availability of communications solutions for seafarers? The MLC asks for “reasonable access to ship-to-shore telephone communications, and email and Internet facilities, where available.” The wording is quite soft. Plus it is located in the non-mandatory guidelines. So there’s some room for interpretation.

05 Aug 2013

CMA CGM Add New VSAT Services from Marlink

CMA CGM Jules Verne

Marlink has been chosen by the CMA CGM Group, the world’s third largest container shipping group, to upgrade the majority of its fleet to WaveCall, Marlink’s standardized Ku-band VSAT service. In combination with the XChange solutions platform from Astrium Services, WaveCall will be installed on over 35 CMA CGM vessels, including the CMA CGM Marco Polo, CMA CGM Alexander Von Humboldt and CMA CGM Jules Verne, one of the largest container vessels in the world. As CMA CGM’s fleet covers global trade routes, extensive Ku-band coverage was a key requirement when choosing WaveCall.

21 Feb 2013

Astrium Crew Survey Reveals SatCom State of Play

A crew communications survey carried out by Astrium Services reveals that a growing number of seafarers see on board Wi-Fi connectivity as essential in order to use their own smartphones, tablets and laptops aboard ships. Social media, especially Facebook was highlighted as one of the most popular web destinations for crews whilst it was also revealed that many seafarers are prepared to pay for connectivity. The Crew Communications 2012 Survey, which was commissioned by Astrium Services to fill the market gap in up-to-date data on crew communications requirements and supported by consultants Stark Moore McMillan, questioned 960 Filipino seafarers during Q3 & Q4 2012. 12% of those surveyed were officers and 88% were general crew.

08 Jan 2013

Luxury Cruise Segment Contracts for MTN

Cruise Ship 'Wind Surge': Photo credit Windstar Cruises

MTN Satellite Communications (MTN) wins VSAT service contracts from four specialised luxury cruise ship operators. •    Windstar Cruises , a sailing luxury small ship cruise line based in Seattle, Wash. “Our team at MTN recognizes that no two customers are alike and it is our job to develop communication solutions that not only meet, but exceed their unique communications requirements,” said Brent Horwitz, senior vice president and general manager for MTN cruise and ferry services.

02 Nov 2012

Inmarsat Provides FleetBroadband Service to Canadian Navy

Inmarsat has announced that Shared Services Canada (SSC) will deploy FleetBroadB & new Assured Access service for 29 Canadian warships. The contract to provide these services to Government of Canada is now under the responsibility of SSC. The Government of Canada established SSC in August 2011 to consolidate its data centers, telecommunications and email systems. Deployment of these services to the Canadian Navy started in October 2012. FleetBroadband will provide the ships with global broadband connectivity while at sea – for email, internet and data services and voice communications. Since Inmarsat introduced FleetBroadband in 2007, it has been deployed on more than 30,000 commercial and government vessels worldwide.

23 Jul 2012

Inaugural Cruise Ship VSAT System Applauded

'Carnival Breeze': Image credit Carnival Corp.

MTN Satellite Communications & Wireless Maritime Services (WMS) outfits 'Carnival Breeze' with integrated voice & data communications. Services provided enable users to access information from any mobile device from anywhere on the ship while at sea. During her first month in service Carnival Breeze leveraged the telecommunications expertise of MTN and WMS to deliver a "shore-side" experience to more than 4,000 passengers and nearly 1,800 crew members on each sailing. MTN say that their VSAT services exceeded the connectivity demands of the crew…

04 Nov 2011

Stratos and Segovia Selected by MSC

Stratos Government Services Inc. (SGSI) and Segovia, Inc., wholly owned subsidiaries of Inmarsat plc, today announced they have been awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract by the Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO) for the U.S. Navy Military Sealift Command’s (MSC) Next Generation Wideband (NGW) commercial satellite communications (COMSATCOM) infrastructure and service. MSC operates approximately 110 noncombatant civilian-crewed ships that replenish U.S.

28 Sep 2011

FleetBroadband for Reederei Claus-Peter Offen 122-Vessel Fleet

Photo courtesy Stratos Global

Stratos Global, the leading global provider of advanced mobile and fixed-site remote communications solutions, announced it has been selected by Reederei Claus-Peter Offen (CP Offen) to provide Inmarsat FleetBroadband airtime services for its entire fleet of 122 commercial vessels. CP Offen, based in Hamburg, is one of the world’s largest suppliers of modern commercial ships, including 122 container vessels, tankers and bulkers. CP Offen vessels are chartered by all of the world’s largest operators.

03 Feb 2010

Marlink Launches Fleetbroadband Bundles

Marlink has introduced a range of new FleetBroadband Bundles which can be purchased with its two and three year price plans. The new bundles will enable customers to lease equipment from a choice of three different vendors, as well as purchase broadband time for data and voice, all at a fixed monthly cost. Customers of the new bundles take advantage of predictable communications costs. Providing both MSS on-demand services and its own VSAT solutions Sealink and WaveCall to a broad range of customers globally, Marlink is a one-stop-shop for maritime satellite communications. Customers of the new FleetBroadband Bundles will be able to choose from a range of packages as well as hardware from Thrane & Thrane, Addvalue or JRC, to meet their own satellite communications requirements.

05 Dec 2008

New Navy Contracts

Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, New Orleans, La., is being awarded a $16,801,209 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-05-C-2217) for Life Cycle Engineering and Support services on the LPD 17 Class Amphibious Transport Dock Ship Program. Work will be performed in Pascagoula, Miss. (60 percent) and New Orleans, La. (40 percent), and work is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2009. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc., McLean, Va., is being awarded a $10,737,434 modification to a previously awarded cost plus fixed fee contract (N00421-06-C-0003) to exercise an option for technical…

12 Oct 2001

Comsat Granted Access to Domestic U.S. Market

Ruling Provides More Satellite Communications Options to Agencies, Relief Organizations and Businesses Operating in the U.S. Comsat Mobile Communications (CMC), a business unit of Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications, announced that it has received authority from the FederalCommunications Commission (FCC) to provide domestic land mobile, maritime, and aeronautical mobile satellite communications services throughout the United States and its territories via the Inmarsat satellite system. This authority is granted in anticipation of the conduct of an IPO by Inmarsat as required by the 2000 Federal ORBIT Act. All of CMC's voice, data, and high-speed data services -- including Direct Internet access, e-mail, and fax -- are included in this ruling.

14 Aug 2007

Navy Contracts Awarded

Lockheed Martin, Maritime Systems & Sensors, Moorestown, N.J., is being awarded a $23,119,281 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the operation and maintenance of a limited in-service support program for the Royal Norwegian Navy new frigate (NNF) F310 CL program.These efforts include software baseline development/maintenance, software maintenance management, engineering support, configuration management, logistics repair, spares support and diminishing manufacturing sources/material shortages. This contract supports the Government of Norway under the Foreign Military Sales program. The effort described herein provides limited in-service…

12 Jun 2007

Telenor Satellite Developing New Service

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.