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Inmarsat maritime field evaluations for Fleet F55 and F33
Posted: 13 August 2003
Inmarsat, the Total Communications Network, today announced the
range of Maritime Field Evaluations (MFEs) that are being conducted
for its two new Fleet services, Fleet F55 and Fleet F33.
The MFEs follow the extensive beta testing and successful commercial
launch of the services in April 2003.
The MFE programme was developed by Inmarsat as a method of obtaining
strong operational feedback on the performance of a new service
when exposed to the maritime environment, and was first used for
the introduction of the Fleet F77 service in mid-2002.
Many of the 2002 MFE participants have since initiated their own
Fleet retrofit programmes, demonstrating the value of the project.
The MFEs for Fleet F55 and F33 will be taking place onboard five
vessels over a period of about three months. The vessels are:
- The Vizconde De Eza, a fishing oceanographic vessel operated
by Spain’s Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentation
– the ministry responsible for the regulation and management
of the Spanish fishing industry.
The 53m vessel has a tonnage of approximately 1400GT, and is manned
principally by scientists and fishing ministry officials. The
MFE on the Vizconde is using a Thrane & Thrane Capsat Fleet
F55, with airtime provided by France Telecom.
- The Sovereign, a fishing boat based out of Fraserburgh, Scotland.
Owned and captained by Mr Kenneth Reid, the 23m vessel is a prawner
that covers the North Atlantic fishing ground, and can be away
for 2 weeks at a time. The MFE on the Sovereign is using a Nera
Fleet F33 terminal, with airtime provided by Stratos and support
from Marconi Marine.
The MFEs enable a wide variety of controlled applications to be
tested on-board vessels, including email, web browsing, FTP, secure
instant messaging, fax, digital image transfer, weather routing
and other remote or utility applications. For Fleet F55, it will
also enable the vessels to compare the benefits of the mobile packet
data service (MPDS) with the 64kbit/s ISDN connection.
“The MFEs provide us with an invaluable opportunity to gather
feedback on the user experience of our new services,” said
Piers Cunningham, Senior Business Development Manager at Inmarsat
and project leader for the MFEs. “The programme is extensive,
and is truly a team effort – we work very closely with the
manufacturers, LESOs, ship owners and crew,” he said.
“We had a number of applications to take part in the MFE
programme for F55 and F33, and the variety and quality of the vessels
chosen demonstrates the reputation that the Fleet name is gaining
in the maritime community. We are grateful to the participants,
and look forward to showing them some new ways of communicating
at sea,” he said.
About Inmarsat Limited
- Inmarsat Ltd owns and operates a unique global mobile satellite
network and delivers its communications solutions through a worldwide
network of approximately 260 distributors and other service providers
operating in over 80 countries to end users in the maritime, land
and aeronautical sectors.
- Inmarsat Ltd has a portfolio of mobile satellite solutions,
including voice, fax, intranet and Internet access and other data
services.
- Inmarsat Ltd has more than 22 years of experience in designing,
implementing and operating satellite networks.
- At the end of December 2002, approximately 260,000 terminals
were registered to access Inmarsat Ltd’s services.
- Inmarsat Ltd is also supported by partners in the fields of
equipment manufacture, software provision and systems integration.
- Inmarsat Ltd is a subsidiary of Inmarsat Ventures plc.
- Inmarsat is the exclusive global partner of the FIA World Rally
Championship.
More information about Inmarsat Fleet F55 or F33, the Maritime
Field Evaluations or other members of the Fleet family can be found
at www.inmarsat.com/fleet.
Posted by Richard Price,
Editor Pipeline Magazine
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