Inmarsat Maritime’s President, Ronald Spithout has proclaimed that their new Fleet Xpress service is a game-changer for the shipping industry.
Spithout delivered this statement to journalists during a recent London press briefing at Inmarsat HQ, saying that: “Maritime is the last great industry to adopt applications to become safer, greener and more efficient. Fleet Xpress is the game-changer.”
Inmarsat’s Fleet Xpress service was officially launched on March 31, 2016.
According to the sat coms giant, the Fleet Xpress service delivers a “paradigm moment” for shipping to reap rewards from mobile connectivity, app-based processes and enhanced security that emulate land-based achievements.
The worldwide FX service has been made possible by three new Global Xpress I-5 satellites, launched in 2015 and operating on Ka-band, with unlimited back-up provided by L-Band Fleet Broadband services via Inmarsat’s I-4 network.
FX is the only satellite broadband marine communications system from a single operator, bringing massively faster broadband services to ships, but it is also the route to a change in business culture, according to Spithout.
The Inmarsat maritime frontman said that Inmarsat already had FX service commitments covering 600 vessels. He also predicted that the amount of data transferred ship/shore by the maritime sector would be eight times what it is today by 2020.
Another innovation that Inmarsat is driving with much gusto is the Inmarsat Gateway, which is a “service ecosystem” developed with communications heavyweight Cisco. It takes an open platform approach that allows Inmarsat Certified Application Partners to develop content-rich apps that include bandwidth costs as part of the package.
Speaking of the Inmarsat Gateway, Spithout said: “Ship operators will be able to pick and choose the apps they want, and bandwidth can be ‘app-triggered’, so there is no bill shock down the line.”
Typical ‘efficiency’ apps include real-time fuel consumption analysis or better access to the latest weather-routing software, but crew welfare should also benefit via telemedicine, streamed video chatting or improved entertainment.
Spithout repeatedly emphasised that the FX service is not simply a ‘pipe’ through which data and crew connectivity will be funneled.
Peter Broadhurst, Inmarsat Maritime Vice President of Service Development said: “We are an enabler looking in four different directions when it comes to enabling FX service developments – operational efficiency, safety and compliance, crew welfare, and IT and security.”
Broadhurst also stated that: “Apps could be made available within a customer’s existing bandwidth, or we can invoice the application provider and not the vessel. This is a fundamental change in shipping.”
