“Improved Crew Welfare”

SATCOMS
Reederei Werner Bockstiegel to install Iridium Pilot fleetwide
www.iridium.com
www.globecommsystems.com/maritime
German shipping company Reederei
Werner Bockstiegel is to install the Iridium
Pilot system across its shipping fleet, as
part of an agreement with Globecomm
Maritime.
The Iridium Pilot terminals will
form part of an upgraded 'Telaurus
se@COMM' communications package,
the installation of which will be
managed by Globecomm for the entire
Reederei Werner Bockstiegel fleet of
65 ships.
The vessels will receive one dedicated
voice line for the captain and two independent
crew phone lines. Globecomm’s
Telaurus se@COMM Wi-Fi service will
also provide access points to enable crew
to use their own laptops and smartphones
to stay connected onboard.
“It was vital for us to combine affordable
equipment with competitive airtime
to give flexibility to our vessels,” said
Albert Bokelmann, fleet manager at
Reederei Werner Bockstiegel.
“The comprehensive voice and e-mail
service enables us to significantly reduce
our overall communications costs and
provide crew calling services that positively
impact welfare and morale while
at sea.”
“BBC Chartering in Leer, our charterer
company, has reported that having
se@COMM installed will improve their
daily operations significantly by enabling
their e-mails to be delivered to the vessel
in real time.”
Also part of the package will be the
Se@COMM managed communication
software application, which provides
advance price notifications and push
delivery of e-mail, as well as management
of prepaid crew e-mail and SMS over the
Wi-Fi access points via a crew member’s
own notebook or PDA device.
Globecomm Maritime, through its
local sales agent Nordic-IT Marine
Communications, will provide the Iridium
Pilot terminals and service plans for the
Bockstiegel ships.
Werner Bockstiegel’s charterer company BBC Chartering has reported an improvement
in operations since the system was installed
Intelsat to improve VSAT capacity with new satellite network
ww.intelsatepic.com
Intelsat has introduced its EpicNG satellite
platform, a new series of satellites which
will combine Intelsat's spectral rights in
the C-, Ku- and Ka-bands.
The satellite network will be built upon
an open architecture design and will
utilise multiple frequency bands, wide
beams, spot beams and frequency reuse
technology.
The new technology will also be integrated
with Intelsat's existing satellite fleet
and global IntelsatONE terrestrial network,
for backward compatibility.
“The Intelsat EpicNG platform represents
the next generation of satellites, a
progressive evolution of the Intelsat fleet,”
said Intelsat CEO Dave McGlade.
“As the global demand for bandwidth
surges and penetration of communications
reaches ever further into developing
regions and mobile applications, we are
strategically investing in this platform to
support our customers with a highly reliable
and efficient broadband infrastructure
as they launch new services and enter
new geographies.”
With the launch of its new satellites
Intelsat is promising higher performance,
and therefore a lower cost per-bit.
For each satellite, four to five times
more capacity than Intelsat’s traditional
satellites will be available, with an anticipated
throughput of a massive 25-60 Gbps
per satellite.
Intelsat says it will deploy EpicNG payloads
in all frequency bands (C-, Ku- and
Ka-), which will be optimised in the design
of individual satellites, depending upon the
application and region being supported.
The company also notes, in what could
be interpreted as a slight on Inmarsat’s
upcoming Global Xpress services, that
“unlike many new satellite operators,
Intelsat is not constrained to Ka-band.”
The company says that the wide beams
and spot beams which will be employed
will help to provide the high levels of
throughput, while the multi-band frequencies
can be aligned to region- and
application-specific requirements.
These features should also enable
smaller terminals to be used, and Intelsat
says it will be better able to support growing
applications in mobility, such as in
maritime, and benefit increasingly datacentric
services like cellular backhaul.
“The driving force behind the creation
of our Intelsat EpicNG next generation
The EpicNG constellation will begin with the launch of Intelsat 29e and 33e
‘EpicNG represents a progressive evolution
of the Intelsat fleet’ – Dave McGlade,
Intelsat
platform comes from listening to our customers,
and building a technical and
strategic understanding of their business
requirements and long-term objectives,”
said Intelsat EVP of sales, marketing &
strategy Steve Spengler.
“The open architecture design of
Intelsat EpicNG will allow our telecommunications
customers to customise and
control their own service offerings, determining
critical elements such as speed,
hardware and network topology.”
“This freedom of choice is not currently
available in other high throughput satellite
solutions, but it was essential to our
design considerations because our customers
will be able to differentiate their
service offerings to better serve their
respective market segments.”
Initially, the Intelsat EpicNG platform
will feature two next generation satellites,
with Intelsat noting that it is currently evaluating
proposals by several manufacturers.
These first two satellites, Intelsat 29e
and Intelsat 33e, have projected in-services
dates in 2015 and 2016.
Arbitration setback
for Globalstar
www.globalstar.com
Globalstar’s tribulations in its plans to
launch its second generation satellite constellation
continue, after commercial arbitration
of a dispute with Thales Alenia
Space France was decided in favour of the
French satellite manufacturer. The companies
have since reached a settlement in
discussions after the decision.
The arbitrators in the dispute concerning
Globalstar's 2009 satellite manufacturing
contract with Thales ruled that Thales has no
further obligation to manufacture or deliver
satellites under Phase 3 of the contract.
Phase 3 provided for Globalstar's option
to purchase up to 23 second-generation satellites
in addition to the 25 satellites purchased
in the first two phases under the contract.
The arbitrator's ruling also required
Globalstar to pay Thales approximately
EUR€53 million in termination charges by
June 9, 2012.
This payment was not made, which
caused Thales to notify French group
Coface, the backer to Globalstar’s financing
on the project, and start a process
which would see construction cease on six
satellites that are almost completed and
set to be launched in October if an agreement
could not be reached.
This eventuality was averted however,
with the June 25 announcement that
Globalstar had reached a settlement with
Thales and had agreed to the terms of a
commercial proposal for the purchase of
the six additional spacecraft.
The mutual settlement ensures that
Thales will complete its current work so
that Globalstar’s fourth launch of six satellites
can be conducted this year. In addition,
Globalstar and Thales have agreed to
the terms of a purchase of six additional
second-generation satellites, with construction
expected to begin this year.
Globalstar and Thales say they expect
to enter into a commercial contract based
upon these terms in the near future.
Digital Ship August 2012 page 6