Marine Log - July 2008 - (Page 20)

COMMUNICATIONS high-volume usage. Iridium OpenPort also replaces perminute pricing with more cost-effective per-megabyte rates. The lower capital expenditure and airtime costs add up to a faster return on investment. Iridium OpenPort systems have successfully completed sea trials, and the company has a backlog of more than 2,500 units on order from major service providers. “Iridium OpenPort represents a significant R&D investment in our constellation and ground systems – some of the most extensive development since the system was launched 10 years ago.” “We have had an overwhelming response from our Service Providers since previewing Iridium OpenPort at our Partners’ Conference in September,” says Greg Ewert, executive vice president of Iridium Satellite. “Globe Wireless, LLC, a leading maritime IT solution provider with over 550 ship operators and 8,600 ships worldwide, has made a major commitment to the program as our charter customer.” FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE “Iridium OpenPort is fundamentally changing how the maritime industry manages voice and data communications and will provide a cost-effective way to address the severe crew shortage and increased reporting and management requirements in the industry,” says Frank Coles, CEO, Globe Wireless. “Iridium OpenPort also opens up new market segments, specifically luxury yachts, tugs, fishing and cruising vessels for which traditional marine satcom systems have been out of reach. Now, when they evaluate the value/cost tradeoff, the question becomes ‘why not?’” Iridium will target the new service toward the deep-sea shipping and commercial fishing segments. “Iridium OpenPort provides a complete integrated solution for ship-to-shore crew calling, email and IP-based data communications,” said Ewert. “Our pricing strategy replaces expensive pay-per-minute billing schemes with a straightforward, costeffective, pay-per-megabyte plan for data transfer. Hardware upgrades from bandwidth packages associated with competing products will be a thing of the past.” “The installed cost of an Iridium OpenPort ship terminal is 50 to 90 percent lower than other marine satcom systems, and our per-megabyte prices for data throughput are at least 30 percent lower than any other marine satcom system on the market today,” says Ewert. 20 MARINE LOG JULY 2008 ICE CLASS TANKERS “This means a return on investment measured in months rather than years.” Vizada, the worldwide leading provider of satellite communications solutions, with more market share on more satellite networks than any other provider, has entered into an agreement to become a global distribution partner for OpenPort and will combine the service with the Vizada Solutions portfolio, providing one of the most comprehensive communications solutions available to the maritime community. Vizada will offer a number of service packages that bundle data usage and voice minutes for one low monthly fee with larger-volume voice and data packages offering progressive per-unit discounts. Service packages will be available at speeds of 9.6kbps, 32kbps, 64kbps and 128kbps. Vizada Solutions extend the capabilities of satellite in the areas of IP networking, messaging, business tools, prepaid solutions, fixed-to-mobile services and secure communications. Vizada’s Universal Card, for example, leverages Iridium OpenPort’s three simultaneous phone lines and IP data connection to provide prepaid voice and email for private crew communications. This, and all other Vizada SolutionsTM, will be available on the Iridium OpenPort service after its planned commercial service launch in the third quarter. Vizada’s Iridium OpenPort package will be exclusively available through Vizada Service Providers, a global alliance of partners serving the needs of customers in local markets worldwide. Access to the Vizada Solutions portfolio for Iridium OpenPort customers is via an interconnection between Vizada’s IP backbone and the Iridium network. Peter Döhle Schiffarts-KG, one of the world’s largest chartering agents and owners with a fleet of approximately 350 containerships and bulkers, is beta-testing the service with Vizada in anticipation of the commercial launch. “The global coverage provided by the Iridium constellation, as well as the low price of airtime and terminals, make Iridium OpenPort a very attractive proposition for owners of large fleets of vessels,” said Michael Dittmer, IT & Communication Coordinator Fleet, Peter Döhle Schiffarts-KG. “With this in mind, we are particularly interested in equipping vessels with a minimum of one Iridium OpenPort terminal in order to provide essential redundancy for our IT & communications systems.” through detection, traffic identification, and classification of vessels out to 2,000 nautical miles from shore. Currently, NAIS has the capability to receive AIS messages at 55 critical ports and nine coastal areas across the nation. Increment two of the program(with nationwide AIS transmit and receipt coverage) will provide the capability to receive AIS messages out to 50 nautical miles and transmit AIS messages out to 24 nautical miles along the entire coastline of the U.S. and designated inland waterways. Increment three will extend the coverage for receipt of AIS messages out to 2,000 nautical miles from shore. The satellite testing will assist in the development of Increment three of the NAIS project. Interestingly, all of the six satellites just put into orbit by Orbcomm carry AIS payloads. Orbcomm says it has been working closely with the Coast Guard on the AIS project, and also intends to market AIS data to other U.S. and international government agencies, as well as to what is describes as “companies whose businesses require such information.” “This is an important step for us and our customers,” said Marc Eisenberg, ORBCOMM’s CEO. “With the successful launch of these six new satellites, we expect to both improve the quality of our service and enter the AIS data services business. The AIS capability onboard these satellites make Orbcomm the only company capable of providing space based worldwide commercial AIS data services.” Orbcomm may soon have some competition, though. Canada’s Com Dev International Ltd. has just been awarded an $8.6 million contract to design, build and launch a micro-satellite for the Government of Canada. The Maritime Monitoring and Messaging Micro-satellite (M3MSat) is a technology demonstration mission jointly funded and managed by Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The spacecraft “will support Canadian sovereignty, security, safety and communications needs within the territorial and maritime regions of Canada and beyond.” M3MSat is expected to “demonstrate the full capability of advanced spacedbased AIS technology developed by Com Dev” which is claimed to “exceed the performance of any other known system www.marinelog.com http://www.marinelog.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Marine Log - July 2008

Marine Log - July 2008 Contents Editorial Second Thoughts Update Inside Washington Coastal Shipping Communications Paints & Coatings WISTA’s Jeanne Grasso Showcase Newsmakers Tech News Contracts Events Website Directory ML Buyer's Guide ML Marketplace Tech Talk Gulf Coast Headliner

Marine Log - July 2008

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