Although satellite links at sea are quite common, the speed of data transmission for most users is very low - from 600 bps to 64 kbps, with around 10kbps being the typical speed. This combined with typical usage costs of 20 Euro per Megabyte create an environment in which many ship owners cannot reliably access the Internet, or use it regularly.
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Phone, TV and now Internet |
Commercial success
There is a substantial potential niche market for the service. Roughly 100,000 commercial ships of over 100 Gross Registered Tons (GRT) and over 200,000 leisure boats of 12 metres and greater are at sea or docked at any one time. About 30 to 40% of these are estimated to operate in the European region. Wired Ocean expects to market the service to the broader shipping industry of up to 5,000 customers. The key market segments for the service are private yachts, fishing vessels, merchant ships, offshore support vessels, government ships and ferries.
Wired Ocean's service is now being distributed through over 20 recognised professional marine electronics dealers throughout Europe. Dealers have been positive, as the Wired Ocean equipment and service provides a complementary business opportunity and Wired Ocean provides a high level of dealer support through its remote diagnostics system.
Pilot Trials
From July to December 2005, 10 trials were carried out on various vessels, including 5 yachts in the Mediterranean Sea, 3 fishing vessels in UK waters and the North Sea, 1 container ship operating between Iceland and Continental Europe and 1 oil & gas supply vessel in the North Sea.
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The trials proved Wired Ocean to be exceptionally reliable, with the satellite/hub operating at 99.954% availability and as much as 15.2 Gbytes of data was downlinked. The results of these trials not only demonstrated the pent-up demand for Internet access at sea, but also that a reasonably priced service improves operational efficiency as well as the quality of life for crew and passengers aboard ships. |
In a survey of the trial users Wired Ocean rated extremely well against other maritime data services. Connection set-up time and speed were all highly favourable. The ability to watch TV at the popular locations while accessing the Internet proved to be a 'must have' requirement.
| Access to the internet via Wired Ocean puts a wide variety of applications at the disposal of the crew. Fishing vessels were especially interested in following the latest prices at various ports, while yacht owners made great use of Internet to check their fortunes on the stock market. So pleased with Wired Ocean, seven of the trialists have announced plans to accept the service on a commercial basis. |  Yacht in Wired Ocean trials |
The Wired Ocean advantage
A variety of companies have attempted to provide a low-cost hybrid service at sea but failed. On why he thinks Wired Ocean will succeed, Victor Barendse explained: "While the concept sounds simple actually delivering a service that meets the challenging user requirements set by the market is more difficult. Our service is fast, economical, reliable, secure, flexible and easy to use. Until now one, or more, of these elements has always been missing."
"As well as getting those basics right we have a nice range of features such as remote diagnostics, over-the-air upgradeability, automatic disconnect on inactivity and real time and historical usage statistics."
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Two other aspects have broadened the appeal of the service. The Wired Ocean client server is compatible with many types of TVRO and uplink equipment. This means that many ships only need pay for the server to have Internet access; and having capacity at the two most watched locations in Europe means that users don't have to buy an additional TVRO for the internet service or keep switching their TVROs between TV and internet satellites. |
Wired Ocean's pilot trials were a continuation of the ESA Telecom supported project "Maritime Interactive Broadband", which began as a result of the Start-up Projects Initiative, which is designed to open the door for business innovation for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The Start-up Projects Initiative helps SMEs through the early development stages of researching and refining a business proposition. The current project, 'Wired Ocean Pilot Service' has been similarly supported by ESA. "This early help was invaluable to us," highlighted Mr. Barendse.
Norbert Hübner, technical officer for the ESA supported project observed, "The maritime market will always be a niche market. However, due to ESA's support of this project, access to Internet at sea will no longer be restricted to vessels who can afford expensive equipment and services. Wired Ocean will increase the number of satcom users. As a sailor myself, I am glad the day has come when Internet is available to every leisure sailor at a reasonable price."
To read more about Wired Ocean click under related links at the top-right of this page.
ESA Telecom is launching the 6th Round of the Start-up Projects Initiative, to read more on how to participate click under related links at the top-right of this page.
All images courtesy Wired Ocean
