FINAL REPORT - Stakeholders - Ofcom

4 Maritime Radiodetermination
4.1 Introduction
4.1.1 Background
The requirements of the maritime industry depend heavily upon the economic
development and activity within this industrial sector. In recent years the sector has
shown some slight economic and industrial growth. Profit margins have improved and
financial investment in the sector is increasing. Developments and implementations of
new technologies have generally been restricted to the minimum needed to comply with
administrative and safety requirements, in particular the implementation of GMDSS to
larger vessels.
In the short term most companies are likely not to have ambitious plans for the
implementation of new radar technologies; however there is recognition from within the
industry that moves need to be taken to comply with recently proposed tighter restrictions
on spurious emissions as proposed by the ITU. The typical replacement cycle for a ship’s
radar is of order 10 years, which inevitably leads to slow uptake in recent technological
changes, unless mandated or where obvious (financial) efficiency gains can be made. As
an example, in January 2003, the ITU mandated a new standard for spurious emissions
from maritime radar equipment 12 . This applied to all new equipment as of 1 January 2003
but the timescale for all radar equipment to conform to the new specification is 1 January
2012.
Most freight and passenger operators agree that in the long term there is the need for the
further integration of maritime transport with inter-modal transport. This applies
particularly to freight transport and requires that no intermediate handling of goods takes
place at the modal switch, thereby reducing the total transportation time of cargo and
reducing errors in handling at intermediate steps.
Both in freight transport and in passenger transport, the trend towards the development of
inter-modal, door-to-door, services is one of the most important issues. This development
of inter-modal services, together with the enlargement of ships to gain economies of scale
advantages are probably the most important developments envisaged for the maritime
industry. Information is essential for the efficient planning and co-ordination of land
transport with maritime transport. Delays will increase the turnaround times of vessels in
ports, thereby decreasing the efficiency of the vessel and resulting in an increase in the
cost of transportation.
Efficient ship-shore communications and the availability of electronic navigational aids
can facilitate efficient planning of port activities and could help ensure that ships are
managed within designated time slots.
Developments in the integration of land-based information (fleet owner, freight operator,
fishing agency etc.) with maritime/vessel-based information are required to achieve
optimal operational efficiency. This will lead to the creation of “integrated ship
management systems” and will improve efficiency of ship operations, which in turn will
reduce turn-around times in ports and therefore reduce operational expenses of fleet
owners.
12 The out-of-band roll-off was changed from 20 to 40dB per decade.
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