Page 35: of Marine News Magazine (July 2013)

Rodrigues. We work with small to medium operators in the offshore, coastal and inland waterways, as well as commercial ? shing vessels. These companies want voice and data ser- vices for crew welfare, increased com- pliance and greater productivity, as well as a powerful ? eet management solution to track, message and operate their vessels ef? ciently. The Boatracs Broadband Fleet Management Solution provides a complete, reliable, and affordable way to meet these needs.? The TracPhone V3 is the worlds smallest maritime VSAT antenna, de- signed for vessels as small as 30 feet. With airtime rates 1/10th the cost of L- band systems, the TracPhone V3 offers downloads as fast as 2 Mbps at $0.99 per MB and phone calls worldwide at only $0.49 per minute. The TracPhone V3s small size, fast data rates, and af- fordable service have brought the pow- er of satellite communications within reach for commercial vessels. LOOKING AHEADAs MarineNews went to press, KVH had announced yet another partner- ship; this time with Jeppesen, support- ing Jeppesen Chart Subscribers with New IP-MobileCast Content Delivery Service. According to KVH, the plan involves economical, weekly, multicast delivery of the entire updated Jeppesen ENC and Professional+ Chart Data- bases over the Mini-VSAT Broadband Service. Clearly, that cant be supported over a cellular connection, either. Separately, the looming subchap- ter M regulatory scheme may be just around the corner and has some op- erators scrambling to ? nd a software solution to organize their compliance plans. Scores of smaller and medium sized companies who had never before considered management software ? or SATCOM, for that matter ? are tak- ing a hard look at both. And, for those hoping to connect with the main of? ce intranet or company servers, there may be no other alternative going forward. Cellular communications for inland operators, slow and sometimes unreli- able, will be a part of the vessel-to- shore equation for a while longer. In the meantime, operators are weighing the increased costs of Broadband and SATCOM against the obvious advan- tages that the latter option provides. Arguably, it only a matter of time be- fore the scales tip the other way. MN 35www.marinelink.com MN July2013 Layout 32-42.indd 356/27/2013 1:04:57 PM