Our team of maritime and nearshore connectivity experts recently wrote a piece for Digital Ship magazine titled “Netting the full rewards of ship digitalisation means putting humans back into the picture”. You can read the full piece on page 26 of the online magazine which can be found here.
In it we discussed how fleet owners have started to explore how a digital transformation can improve their operations. KPMG’s white paper Digital Transformation in the Shipping Industry quotes a “survey conducted by Wärtsilä Marine Business, (which says that) two-thirds of shipping companies have started on their digital journey, with this being just the beginning, as 69% of them are currently exploring digital solutions”.
“Technologies such as IoT, AI, APIs and sensors, together with the vast amount of data that are now available, are being utilised to optimise operations, enhance efficiency, drive down costs and increase the uptime of vessels”.
At Telecom26 we are working with our shipping customers to provide the maritime connectivity and nearshore connectivity that enables these technologies - both on the ship and ship-to-shore.
However, in our Digital Ship piece we focus on the needs of the crew. The empty shelves created by COVID focused attention on the merchant shipping industry like never before. According to The Economist, “1.2m sailors work on cargo vessels on the high seas. (Half as many again work on cruise ships or vessels transporting goods within a single country’s territory)”. COVID saw many of them finish their contracts but stuck hundreds of miles from home and unable to leave their ships.
At Telecom26 we believe that the personal communication needs of the people who live and work on ships and fleets – who keep the whole industry afloat – must be core to any digital transformation project. Happy teams are the most productive, right?
Maritime Connectivity and Telecom26
Fortunately, the communications services which enables crews to communicate with their loved ones, watch Netflix, do their banking online etc use the same infrastructure necessary to support digital transformation.
Telecom26 is a maritime mobile operator and providing always-available voice and data connectivity for vessels of all shapes and sizes is one of Telecom26’s core services.
Whether it’s a ship travelling from China to Europe laden with containers, or a sunny Sunday on a yacht, our Global Roaming Service is all that’s needed to stay connected.
We use cellular coverage to provide maritime and nearshore connectivity to vessels of all shapes and sizes complementing it with satellite where necessary. We can fully customise our offering for digital services, and IoT device data management as well as P2P communication for crew and visitors.
These days we’re aided by the fact that most vessels spend a significant time following lanes that pass close to the shore, often in sight of the coast. As a result, they can also be within range of land-based mobile networks for a significant portion of their total time at sea. You can read more about this in our earlier blog Using Land-based mobile networks for nearshore data coverage
In our article for Digital Ship we discuss how both cellular and satellite capacity can be optimised to provide the best experience for people, devices and processes – delivering the optimum communications for all.
So please take a look at our article “Netting the full rewards of ship digitalisation means putting humans back into the picture” on page 26 of Digital Ship magazine which can be found here.
Our new paper is also a good read - Nearshore Services A short guide to nearshore cellular services.
And, if you’d like to discuss how our maritime connectivity and maritime cellular communications services can support ship to shore data services, as well as crew welfare while at sea, then please get in touch.
