{"id":506149,"date":"2024-09-18T17:48:50","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T21:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/?p=506149"},"modified":"2024-09-19T01:33:29","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T05:33:29","slug":"leo-takes-center-stage-for-communications-at-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/leo-takes-center-stage-for-communications-at-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"LEO takes center stage for communications at sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Ship owners are increasingly relegating geostationary satellites to the backseat and turning to low Earth orbit (LEO) networks for primary communications at sea, according to a panel of multi-orbit maritime service providers.<\/p>

Speaking Sept. 17 during the World Satellite Business Week in Paris, Despina Theodosiou, co-CEO of Tototheo Global, said SpaceX\u2019s Starlink LEO constellation poses a growing challenge for legacy geostationary VSAT services and their resellers.<\/p>

Just a few months ago, she said licensing and other obstacles had largely kept shipping operators from choosing LEO as their primary communications source.<\/p>

\u201c[But] we\u2019re seeing \u2026 large operators as well going for LEO as their primary and for VSAT as their secondary\u201d backup service.<\/p>

\u201cThere are many, many changes that we as service providers need to deal with,\u201d she added, but \u201cthis has also created opportunities.\u201d<\/p>

A Starlink antenna costs $250 compared to the $25,000 price of a VSAT terminal a couple of years ago, KVH Industries CEO Brent Bruun said on the panel.<\/p>

He said vessels can now get up to 200 megabits per second of service for about a dollar a gigabit, versus 20 Mbps on a typical VSAT for $10 per GB.<\/p>

These orders of magnitude differences across three different metrics enable video calls and many other activities onboard a ship that used to be confined to land, significantly boosting ship operations and crew morale.<\/p>

\u201cNo one saw this change coming as quickly as it did,\u201d Bruun continued. \u201cThis whole market has been turned upside down.\u201d<\/p>

GEO importance<\/strong><\/p>

The panelists agreed that geostationary networks remain an important component of maritime connectivity, particularly for resiliency and applications where latency is not important.<\/p>

Bruun said over half the Starlink terminals KVH has shipped are being installed in tandem with VSATs able to provide stringent service-level agreements (SLAs), versus SpaceX\u2019s consumer-grade, best-effort service.<\/p>

Thierry Polycarpe, vice president for global maritime at multi-orbit satellite operator Eutelsat, also said his company has used its geostationary network to carry two terabits of data in a single day for ship-to-shore connectivity.<\/p>

\u201cThere is no doubt [LEO] is creating demand,\u201d Polycarpe said. <\/p>

\u201cA tremendous amount of demand, coming from all parts of the market.\u201d<\/p>

But he said the market should avoid getting bogged down in thinking about \u201cwhat is primary, what is secondary, what is [geostationary], what is LEO \u2014 because, down the line, I think what is important to keep in mind is that we need to deliver performance.<\/p>

\u201cWe need to deliver quality of service, and we need to deliver a good experience to the customer or to the end user.\u201d<\/p>

Simplifying complexity<\/strong><\/p>

An abundance of choice creates more opportunities for companies offering bundled products and network management services aiming to reduce complexity.<\/p>

Tototheo Global\u2019s Theodosiou said overwhelmed shipowners have even been requesting IT management services alongside communications management from the company.<\/p>

In June, Tototheo Global announced plans to introduce Florida-based Neuron\u2019s artificial intelligence tools across its connected fleet<\/a> to help better manage customer services.<\/p>

Other service providers are also doubling down on their increasingly important network management role. <\/p>

\u201c[W]e\u2019ve taken the software that we own, and that we created years ago for the maritime sector, and effectively recoded it, re-engineered it so that it\u2019s resilient and safe in today\u2019s environment,\u201d said James Trevelyan, executive vice president of global sales at connectivity provider Speedcast.<\/p>

\u201cAnd software is really important because it\u2019s all become more complicated, and so the software-defined nature of the network that we have built, and continue to build, is all centered around intelligence.\u201d<\/p>

In addition to more network flexibility, shipowners are increasingly demanding flexible price plans from their communications providers.<\/p>

\u201cThey don\u2019t like the model of paying one price every month,\u201d Theodosiou noted. \u201cThey want to pay-as-you-go or pay what they use.\u201d<\/p>

She added: \u201cOn the one hand, we see that there\u2019s a lot of pressure on us as service providers in terms of pricing, but on the other hand there are opportunities in offering value-added services that can justify a premium price.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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