An Interesting Article: Options bring choice and affordability to broadband at sea

27. October 2009 by admin.

http://www.professionalmariner.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=8818FDCAB4584D94BB8F8A0D45B31294

* I don’t know if the link above will hold and work for you, someone originally emailed the link to me and it wouldn’t work for me. So just in case, here’s how to find it…

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Just go to http://www.professionalmariner.com then magazine (tab on the top) then Trends and CurrentsThe subsequent page will list an article starting with”Options Bring”

That’s it.

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Alan’s Note: It didn’t bring any real news to me, except maybe about Iridiums supposedly new service called “OpenPort”, and 128 Kb/s doesn’t sound very fast. And I have to wonder if they are doing that with compression anyway (?)A couple of comments in there were interesting to me:

<Quote>Iridium and Inmarsat are betting most vessels don’t need the high-speed bandwidth. For simple e-mail and crew calling, some might consider the monthly cost of an unlimited VSAT link an unneeded expense.”</Quote>

* Alan Spicer Says: And I’m betting you might be correct when they are on the deep blue sea. But they do when they are near shore, at anchor, or in dock that situation changes. What I’m saying is that satellite and other 3G and 4G technologies can be made to play nice together, to augment each other, and to save you money and give you the fastests speed for the situation/geographic location. And that’s why I provide systems that provide closer to broadband speeds  - usually using both Cellular Fast Internet (3G) and WiFi Hotspot Sharing - in a tag-team approach so that you can use what is the fastests and least expensive of the available connections. Cellular systems provide Cellular Voice to Analog phones or the vessels PBX system, and WiFi can be used for that purpose as well using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoiP) solutions.

<Quote> Free or paid, at-sea access seems to be a growing necessity for vessel operators who want to retain crew.

“It makes a huge difference on pretty much any size vessel,” said Ship Equip’s Quarders. “Whether it’s a tugboat, a yacht or a ship, it’s difficult to maintain a quality crew if the owners don’t give them the same things they have on the beach.”</Quote>

Alan Spicer Says: I agree with that. I don’t know how far you are going to go with charging yacht crews for Internet or Telephone though. But it can be an option. I think most crew will wait for in dock time (in Cellular 3G or WiFi Range) where the Internet is less expensive and can be included as a benefit for their job. It’s definately good for morale and crew retention. I know because I go aboard yachts all of the time - and if the Internet has been failing you can bet *I* will hear about it.

<Quote> “Let’s say you’re a research vessel that sends out terabytes of information,” Landsfield said. “Then VSAT is a perfect fit for you.” But Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband is a more-than-adequate solution for many vessels, he said. “Even though (VSAT) is a flat fee, it’s quite a bit more money. If a customer’s data profile makes sense for it, then it’s worth it. We ask them, what is the information they want to pass back and forth?”</Quote>

Alan Spicer’s Says: Yes, and also for yachts - Can it wait until the next time close to a less expensive connection (close to land or in dock) ? Fleet Broadband is nice and I think you can still get it pay-per-use without an expensive flat montly bill. That is a big selling point for yachts of all sizes - I think. If you have to go on the Internet for something important (say critical) or for the owner or home office - you might fire up the Fleet Broadband. But for less important (less critical?) you might be able to wait until you are in range of Cellular or WiFi Internet Access, if your vessel is so equipped.

<Quote>”Used to be a 500-foot vessel was the lower end, but now it’s as small as a 55- or 60-foot yacht where a guy might be cruising and want to stay in touch with the stock market,” he said. “There are huge uses for it. Anything you can do from home and the office, you can do from (While at Sea) sea.”</Quote>

Alan Spicer Says: I’ve been in the sail and motor yacht side of Marine Communications for a bit over 5 years and I saw the Inmarsat Fleet Systems when they were pretty much the only thing for the deep blue sea. (We) were putting routers for the KVH and Nera Inmarsat Systems. (We) still do when they are required or asked for. But there have been near-shore options for as many years. I have articles on the evolution of Cellular as it pertains to marine usage. I’ve seen the GSM Cellular Terminals with the voice telephone capability and the akward 9-pin modem connections that had to be made to use GPRS and Edge Internet Services. I’ve even put that 9-pin serial signal over an IP (including onboard wireless) network to make it more portable (to untether the darned thing!) So there have been other options all along, and these things have been evolving and improving - most of this is relatively new in satellite as well as cellular and wifi. That’s why we’ve got to keep our eyes open and keep our heads up into what’s going on with this stuff. This is very good article about this stuff … and it makes us wake up once again and keep trying to find the best systems and solutions for our marine / sail / motor yacht customers.

* I’ve save a PDF Printout of the Options bring choice and affordability to broadband at sea - article and have it available here:

PDF Printout of Options bring choice and affordability to broadband at sea

You can also make such a PDF or Print it out from: http://www.professionalmariner.com web site. And I do recommend that you support such web sites that provide this kind of valuable information and articles.

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Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net

+1 954-683-3426

Email: communications (at) marinetelecom.net

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