Norway’s Solstad Offshore is to be one of many first offshore service vessel operators to trial SpaceX’s StarLink LEO satcom service. Back in September 2022, the corporate accomplished the migration of its fleet connectivity to Marlink, together with Sealink VSAT and 4G connectivity. It is now evaluating if this needs to be additional prolonged with Starlink integration.
Most satellite tv for pc web companies come from single geostationary satellites that orbit the planet at 35,786 kilometers. As a end result, the spherical journey knowledge time between the consumer and satellite tv for pc — or latency — is excessive. Starlink is a constellation of thousands of satellites that orbit the planet a lot nearer to Earth, at about 550 kilometers, and canopy the complete globe. Because Starlink satellites are in a low orbit, latency is considerably decrease—round 20 ms vs 600+ ms.
Solstad offshore will use the Starlink connectivity to ship enhanced communications for seafarers, with excessive pace, low latency connectivity, designed to supply an unparalleled Maximum Information Rate (MIR) efficiency together with a dependable Committed Information Rate (CIR) over VSAT, guaranteeing enterprise vital connectivity.
Marlink says its integration of present and rising networks into one seamless end-to-end managed hybrid community will enhance consumer expertise, utility efficiency, reliability, scalability and safety. Solstad will even profit from superior community administration instruments, together with SD-WAN application-based routing, to optimize communications and allow the next high quality consumer expertise.
“We are delighted to be supporting the adoption of next-generation networks in the maritime offshore market through this agreement with Solstad Offshore, which is the first of its kind on the Marlink network in this sector,” mentioned Tore Morten Olsen, president, maritime, Marlink. “The integration of new LEO capabilities with our well-established Sealink VSAT service represents a new frontier of performance for maritime customers, like Solstad, that will experience unparalleled connectivity that improve business operations and crew welfare.”
“Solstad Offshore is committed to innovation and quality in all our operations and we consider connectivity to be an important driver of value for our customers, crews and our people ashore,” mentioned Christian Nesheim, ICT director, Solstad Offshore. “We are happy to further deepen our relationship with Marlink and have the opportunity to pilot the Starlink connectivity solutions together. Testing done on vessels in the North Sea region will give us valuable experience on the roughness and stability of the solution during the tough winter months. Following the Starlink trial we will evaluate if this should be incorporated as a supplement in the Solstad Offshore fleet, as an integrated part of our existing connectivity solutions by Marlink.”