Sea-change – how VSAT is transforming the maritime world

Communicating with vessels at sea has always been expensive and difficult. The first satellite communications networks were conceived with one primary consideration – improving the safety of seafarers and their vessels. But as technology has advanced and the requirements for sending data ship to ship and ship to shore have increased, the pay-per-megabyte nature of L-band leased line services has struggled to keep pace. Historically the only alternative to leased line services where per-megabyte tariffs quickly became very expensive was an even more expensive Single Channel Per Carrier (SCPC) VSAT network. With the advent of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) VSAT networks, the landscape of maritime communications changed fundamentally. Offering a comparable service to SCPC networks but sharing and segmenting bandwidth across vessels, suddenly high speed, always-on, flat-rate VSAT connectivity came within reach of everyone within the maritime community.

The future is VSAT
In the past five years TDMA networks in the maritime VSAT market have increased from less than 20% to more than 50%. Ship owners and operators have quickly grasped the new opportunities afforded by always-on flat-rate IP connectivity. Their vessels are becoming highly functional remote offices, integrated with corporate network applications and taking advantage of unique applications improving vessel management and extending their communications infrastructure to personnel on board, allowing crews to train and remain in contact with home. According to the COMSYS Maritime VSAT Report of the 30,000 large vessels with onboard satellite connectivity less than 10% currently use a TDMA VSAT network. However, that is projected to radically alter. COMSYS predicts that by 2012 the number will increase by 400%.  As the leading maritime manufacturer iDirect is the power behind the majority of TDMA VSAT networks onboard vessels and through its network of heavyweight maritime partners is developing more and more advanced software, hardware and technologies to meet the specific challenges of maritime operations.