maritime

Portugal mulls Atlantic-focused constellation
Portugal’s newly created space agency is considering a national constellation focused on maritime activity in the Atlantic Ocean.

UnseenLabs plans to launch half dozen ship-tracking cubesats in 2020
French startup UnseenLabs intends to launch up to six more ship-tracking cubesats next year to build on the success of its first satellite.

Inmarsat preps new maritime product to fend off KVH competition
Rupert Pearce, Inmarsat’s CEO, said Nov. 8 that the company is taking steps to retain customers in its largest market segment, having identified broadband for social use among crews as the missing component of Inmarsat’s maritime service offering.

Telenor Satellite eyes even split between broadcast, connectivity businesses
Morten Tengs, Telenor Satellite’s CEO, says direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting is still the largest revenue generator for the operator, but Thor-7 now has “a substantial maritime datacom business,” as well as some land-based customers in the Middle East.

5 Markets | KVH turns to Intelsat EpicNG to speed up maritime broadband service
KVH Industries, a mobile satellite communications equipment and service provider, is preparing to offer broadband in early 2018 to commercial and private maritime customers through satellite fleet operator Intelsat’s EpicNG constellation.

Harris-exactEarth partnership promises minute-by-minute ship tracking
Harris Corp. and Canada’s exactEarth are establishing a space-based constellation of more than 60 maritime-tracking sensors to enable government and commercial customers to pinpoint the location of ships around the world nearly instantaneously.

Global Eagle says no “fraud or misconduct” behind recent exec departures
Content and satellite-connectivity provider Global Eagle Entertainment shot down swirling concerns that its recent changes in executive leadership and concurrent overdue financial statements were the result of any misbehavior on the company’s part.

KVH launching HTS upgrade this year, preps for OneWeb
Maritime satellite services and hardware provider KVH is kicking off an upgrade to mix high-throughput capacity from geostationary and low Earth orbit satellites into its network, CEO Martin Kits van Heyningen said Jan. 10.

Aircraft satellite connectivity buys maritime with GEE’s $550 million purchase of EMC
Aeronautical content and satellite-connectivity provider Global Eagle Entertainment (GEE) on May 9 said it would purchase maritime satellite services provider EMC for $550 million in the latest consolidation in the mobile satellite business.

Aero and Maritime Broadband Providers Expect Consolidation Despite Market Growth
The fixed-cost nature of buying satellite capacity argues so heavily for fewer and larger service providers that some see consolidation as inevitable.

OmniAccess To Lease Bandwidth from Panasonic Avionics
The Spanish maritime satellite communications provider said it would deploy the capacity on its existing fleet of more than 250 ships and would explore ways to work with Panasonic in aeronautical broadband delivery as well.

Q&A with Pierre-Jean Beylier, Chief Executive of SpeedCast
At a time when other maritime satcom providers are lamenting the decline in offshore energy markets and tighter purse strings among the big government customers — especially the U.S. government — SpeedCast is predicting a spurt of growth among energy customers based on its recent acquisitions.

Speedcast Buying Maritime Communications Provider SAIT
Mobile satellite communications services provider SpeedCast International on July 28 said it is purchasing SAIT Communications of Greece and Cyprus, a maritime communications provider with a 2,500-ship customer base.

Comsys Survey Sees No Letup in Maritime Market Growth
The maritime satellite broadband market continued its sharp upward march in 2014, surpassing 20,000 ships with installed terminals despite the headwind of lower crude-oil prices and generating about $1.3 billion in revenue.

Harris CapRock Touts Maritime Service That Automatically Switches to Best Network
Harris CapRock has put together a new maritime service that company officials say will keep users connected by automatically switching them to the best available network, satellite or terrestrial, at any given location.