By incorporating a wide range of satellite communications equipment and services, Marlink’s maritime broadband bundles enable ship operators to choose hardware and airtime in accordance with their specific requirements for bandwidth, coverage, contract length and budget. “Ship operators are increasingly requiring more complex communications capabilities to support a multitude of applications and the availability of flexible services is fundamental to this. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ communications solution, so the new maritime broadband bundles allow our customers to combine a range of services and hardware to satisfy their individual needs,” comments Tore Morten Olsen, CEO, Marlink. “Customers are also able to upgrade to higher bandwidth mid-contract if required, while selecting the best migration path to next generation Ku- or Ka-band services. Serving the largest shipping companies in the world, we believe the new bundles provide global, future-proof communications solutions.”
Customers of the new maritime broadband bundles are able to select a combination of VSAT and Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) equipment and airtime based on their communications needs. Services available include Marlink’s well-established @SEAdirect Ku-band VSAT, Inmarsat FleetBroadband and Iridium OpenPort. They are also able to select from the major antenna suppliers, dependent on their preference or already existing installations on board, which have been certified for usage on the Marlink networks for both MSS and VSAT services. Airtime options range from the standard 256 Kbps VSAT airtime-only, to 1 Mbps VSAT plus MSS airtime and hardware back-up for heavy-duty business critical and crew applications.
Combining both VSAT and MSS services, the new bundles are already proving popular, with several Marlink customers including Scorpio Ship Management (s.a.m), significantly benefitting from the exceptional product flexibility. In offering the new maritime broadband bundles Marlink has collaborated with Vizada, a leading independent provider of global satellite-based mobility services, to enable the supply of the new Vizada XChange™ platform within each package. Seamlessly integrating VSAT, MSS voice and broadband data into a single global maritime communications network, Vizada XChange™ provides a fully-managed service platform which offers a range of benefits for crew communications, ship management and cost allocation for Marlink’s customers.
