Alternatives to A ? and additions to Fleet
01 Apr 2004
Inmarsat?s emphasis on new services and technologies
Chris Insall, product manager for Inmarsat?s maritime division says that the analogue mobile satcoms system, Inmarsat A, is a very old system, but owners do not appear to be concerned that the service gets terminated at the end of 2007. "It is not something that we get a huge amount of concerned calls about, although there was a degree of interest around the time we announced that the service would be terminated."
He told The Motor Ship: "Termination was something that was absolutely necessary. The major point for me personally is that there are an increasingly large number of users out in the field who have hardware that is not supported and for which they cannot get spare parts. At some date, we (Inmarsat) would have to say that we can no longer endorse the use of this equipment because the critical nature of communications for large vessels is such that we would need to give our own backing to our own product."
The strategy for providing an alternative is Fleet F77 and also Inmarsat B, which offer two generations of replacement hardware. "We?re completely happy that it is the right way to go in providing something better and more efficient," says Insall. Fleet F77 also meets the latest relevant IMO GMDSS requirements.
Little known is the fact that Inmarsat is obliged to give back the telephone numbers to the International Telecommunication Union at the end of 2008 because of the relatively small number of individuals or users occupying potentially a vast number of telephone numbers. "We are obliged to give these back on 31st December 2008," adds Insall.
Data growth
Maritime Inmarsat communications data growth since 1999 has been over 400% and Fleet F77, which was designed specifically to meet this demand, provides two key aspects.
"There is ISDN, which has been hugely popular and is really the star performer in our current product portfolio," explains Insall. "It runs at 64 kb per sec, which is the same as a single ISDN channel at home and we have plans to extend that to 128 kb per sec towards the end of this year. This has not been announced officially but we do plan to do it. This is a single channel and at the moment to get 128 kb you need two Fleets or you can use one Fleet and an Inmarsat B with the relevant bonding box in the middle, if you are clever. Basically you have to grab two channels of the NTS ? the coordination system ? and that is not a very efficient way of communicating because it takes time to get your second channel up."
What Inmarsat is launching towards the end of this year is a 128kb service that offers a single dedicated channel (an ISDN), so it will be compatible with standard ISDN applications, such as video conferencing or simply email operating through an IP hub that is ISDN enabled. "You?ll be able to go in at 128kb and obviously this will give very strong efficiencies to ship operators for their batch transmissions as well. It will make their batch transmissions much quicker and cheaper," explains Insall.
The other key aspect is mobile packet data, which provides a built-in IP in a terminal. "It has been possible to get IP (internet protocol) services through Inmarsat for some time but up until two years ago, when F77 was launched into the market, it wasn?t possible to just buy a terminal, switch it on and have an IP," says Insall. "The system doesn?t need an Internet service provider ? that comes with the rations as it were. You are able to communicate immediately and you?re charged just for the data you send and not for the minutes you?re spending online."
He went on to tell The Motor Ship: "When the service was launched two years ago, we did have some teething issues, but we conducted a major series of field evaluations with the likes of Maersk, P&O and, last year, the US Coast Guard and the US Navy. Also with smaller vessels, including the New South Wales fleet and with the Spanish government for medium sized vessels, such as fisheries patrol craft. That has really been exhaustive in terms of looking at any issue with MPDS (mobile packet data service)."
Insall says that MEO and LEO providers are having an impact. "There were wonderful visions of what low earth orbit (LEO) satellites could deliver. It?s fair to say the business models for those systems were not true ? they weren?t accurate ? they were really founded on land mobile ideals, which were never really realised. But this has meant that we have a lot more competition and we have had to rise to this."
Inmarsat is now launching MPDS on F33 for small craft. This is a new channel that has fundamentally new technologies to give this MPDS technology on a smaller antenna, something not much bigger than a Mini-M.
New channel
"To deliver MPDS onto the smaller antenna, we?ve developed a new bearer channel, which goes in the uplink direction that operates at 28kb. The download direction is a 64kb bearer, which is shared. It is designed for coastal vessels, patrol and fishing vessels and the leisure sector, which is a huge growth area," explains Insall.
Mini-M continues to meet the requirements for a service grade above 99.9% in terms of satellite availability and this is something that none of Inmarsat?s competitors have to meet, according to Insall. He concludes: "Based on the various onboard trials that I have been on and saw the competition working, I think that if you don?t have the requirement to fulfil your service obligation in this way, you?re not going to experience the same pressure from the market."
Chris Insall, product manager for Inmarsat?s maritime division says that the analogue mobile satcoms system, Inmarsat A, is a very old system, but owners do not appear to be concerned that the service gets terminated at the end of 2007. "It is not something that we get a huge amount of concerned calls about, although there was a degree of interest around the time we announced that the service would be terminated."
He told The Motor Ship: "Termination was something that was absolutely necessary. The major point for me personally is that there are an increasingly large number of users out in the field who have hardware that is not supported and for which they cannot get spare parts. At some date, we (Inmarsat) would have to say that we can no longer endorse the use of this equipment because the critical nature of communications for large vessels is such that we would need to give our own backing to our own product."
The strategy for providing an alternative is Fleet F77 and also Inmarsat B, which offer two generations of replacement hardware. "We?re completely happy that it is the right way to go in providing something better and more efficient," says Insall. Fleet F77 also meets the latest relevant IMO GMDSS requirements.
Little known is the fact that Inmarsat is obliged to give back the telephone numbers to the International Telecommunication Union at the end of 2008 because of the relatively small number of individuals or users occupying potentially a vast number of telephone numbers. "We are obliged to give these back on 31st December 2008," adds Insall.
Data growth
Maritime Inmarsat communications data growth since 1999 has been over 400% and Fleet F77, which was designed specifically to meet this demand, provides two key aspects.
"There is ISDN, which has been hugely popular and is really the star performer in our current product portfolio," explains Insall. "It runs at 64 kb per sec, which is the same as a single ISDN channel at home and we have plans to extend that to 128 kb per sec towards the end of this year. This has not been announced officially but we do plan to do it. This is a single channel and at the moment to get 128 kb you need two Fleets or you can use one Fleet and an Inmarsat B with the relevant bonding box in the middle, if you are clever. Basically you have to grab two channels of the NTS ? the coordination system ? and that is not a very efficient way of communicating because it takes time to get your second channel up."
What Inmarsat is launching towards the end of this year is a 128kb service that offers a single dedicated channel (an ISDN), so it will be compatible with standard ISDN applications, such as video conferencing or simply email operating through an IP hub that is ISDN enabled. "You?ll be able to go in at 128kb and obviously this will give very strong efficiencies to ship operators for their batch transmissions as well. It will make their batch transmissions much quicker and cheaper," explains Insall.
The other key aspect is mobile packet data, which provides a built-in IP in a terminal. "It has been possible to get IP (internet protocol) services through Inmarsat for some time but up until two years ago, when F77 was launched into the market, it wasn?t possible to just buy a terminal, switch it on and have an IP," says Insall. "The system doesn?t need an Internet service provider ? that comes with the rations as it were. You are able to communicate immediately and you?re charged just for the data you send and not for the minutes you?re spending online."
He went on to tell The Motor Ship: "When the service was launched two years ago, we did have some teething issues, but we conducted a major series of field evaluations with the likes of Maersk, P&O and, last year, the US Coast Guard and the US Navy. Also with smaller vessels, including the New South Wales fleet and with the Spanish government for medium sized vessels, such as fisheries patrol craft. That has really been exhaustive in terms of looking at any issue with MPDS (mobile packet data service)."
Insall says that MEO and LEO providers are having an impact. "There were wonderful visions of what low earth orbit (LEO) satellites could deliver. It?s fair to say the business models for those systems were not true ? they weren?t accurate ? they were really founded on land mobile ideals, which were never really realised. But this has meant that we have a lot more competition and we have had to rise to this."
Inmarsat is now launching MPDS on F33 for small craft. This is a new channel that has fundamentally new technologies to give this MPDS technology on a smaller antenna, something not much bigger than a Mini-M.
New channel
"To deliver MPDS onto the smaller antenna, we?ve developed a new bearer channel, which goes in the uplink direction that operates at 28kb. The download direction is a 64kb bearer, which is shared. It is designed for coastal vessels, patrol and fishing vessels and the leisure sector, which is a huge growth area," explains Insall.
Mini-M continues to meet the requirements for a service grade above 99.9% in terms of satellite availability and this is something that none of Inmarsat?s competitors have to meet, according to Insall. He concludes: "Based on the various onboard trials that I have been on and saw the competition working, I think that if you don?t have the requirement to fulfil your service obligation in this way, you?re not going to experience the same pressure from the market."
