OneWeb Launch 100Mbps+ Connectivity for Maritime Sector

British registered space firm OneWeb, which is part-owned by the UK government, has today launched their 100Mbps+ “enterprise-grade flexible connectivity packages” for the maritime sector – delivered via the operator’s new global constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) based broadband satellites.

The company has so far launched 634 of their small c.150kg LEO based broadband satellites into space – orbiting at an altitude of 1,200km above the Earth (588 of them are for coverage and the rest redundancy) – and in March 2023 they announced that this marked the completion of their global network (here).

The service is now said to be fully operational down to 35 degrees latitude, although they won’t have full global maritime services live until the end of the year. But this is one of the key sectors they’ve been targeting, which is where today’s new offer of a “Try Before You Buy” package comes into play (i.e. it’s an opportunity to take bookings and trial before everything is fully live).

A range of hardware terminal products will also be made available from maritime communications providers Intellian and Kymeta, both with different form factors. Customers are also being promised the ability to choose flexibility underpinned by fully encrypted communications and guaranteed service levels, defined by straightforward CIR (Committed Information Rate) and/or MIR (Maximum Information Rate) packages. But no solid examples were included in their PR.

Carole Plessy, VP Europe and Maritime at OneWeb, said:

“Since unveiling our commitment to the maritime community at Nor-Shipping four years ago, the demand for ubiquitous high-speed connectivity across the globe has surged exponentially.

Today, OneWeb’s complete satellite constellation is successfully deployed, enabling us to now launch our guaranteed connectivity services to the maritime industry. In perfect synergy with Nor-Shipping’s central theme of #PartnerShip, OneWeb has achieved this significant milestone by forging strong collaborations with our esteemed industry partners – leveraging their extensive expertise in developing, deploying and servicing certified, scalable and responsible connectivity solutions to the maritime industry.

We look forward to launching OneWeb’s “Try Before You Buy” maritime service and connecting with customers at Nor-Shipping to help them find the best solutions for their connectivity needs.”

The Nor-Shipping 2023 exhibition is currently running in Oslo until 9th June 2023 and visitors can find OneWeb at stand number B03-14.