Page 18: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2004)

We're not the biggest yard on the Gulf...

But when our customers turn over a project to us, they know it will be completed with the utmost consideration to safety, quality workmanship and time requirements.

No matter what kind of marine construction project you have, you can rest assured with United Marine.

Contact us for a competitive price on your next repair job, upgrade, conversion or new construction.

Albert Einstein, when asked to describe radio, replied: "You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat.

You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los

Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat." — Albert Einstein

As technologically advanced as communications have become, the bottom line, par- ticularly for business applications, remains basically the same: the need for clear, reliable and cost-effective means to communicate.

Trends in the transmission of data, voice and e-mail from ship-to-shore are much like that of land-based operations. The need for more speed and increased reliability are never ending, and the companies that excel are the ones that not only continually innovate, but those that consistently stay on the front of the curve to deliver real- world technologies that deliver benefits in the unique maritime operational environ- ment. In parallel, price pressures are ubiquitous, as shipowners are keen to exploit every outlet to cut costs and generate revenue. Following are updates of systems, products and service from some of the industry's leaders. air »• m

UNITED MARINE

SHIPYARD

Texaco Island. Port Arthur, Texas 800-824-SHIP

Corporate Office:

P.O. Box 22077 Beaumont, Texas 77720 409-833-7070 Fax 409-833-0744 www.unitedmarineshipyard.com [email protected]

Circle 272 on Reader Service Card

Marlink Debuts Online

Tools to Control Costs

Marlink introduced a cost-saving enhancement to its account management tool. MarlinkOnline. MarlinkOnline, available exclusively to Marlink cus- tomers. is a secure Web-based tool designed to allow both maritime and land-based customers to more directly manage their Marlink communication accounts by permitting authorized users . to review and ana- lyze monthly invoic- —^sS—.SiSr es and daily account ~ V . —— usage, as well as frf,, -HZ print call records and invoice details. _ Maritime customers can select and view invoices or call data for individual ves- sels or tor their entire fleet with informa- tion updated every 24 hours. Both ship and shore-based customers now have the ability to manage their communications costs in greater detail enabling them to improve their overall operational effi- ciencies. Another enhancement is the

WebDial feature, a feature that enables users to initiate voice calls online via the

Web. Marlink's WebDial permits the user to direct calls to any terrestrial or cellular phone and to determine the account to be billed for the call.

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Cell Phone Service

Sets Sail

AT&T Wireless and Maritime

Telecommunications Network (MTN) are working to provide cruise ship pas- sengers with the convenience of using their wireless phones at sea. Earlier this year the companies formed a joint ven- ture, Wireless Maritime Services, to develop and launch an innovative and affordable communications offering that will rely on a combination of satellite and wireless services to provide the cruise line industry and its passengers with on-board wireless service.

Recently it was announced that Island

Cruises would offer passengers the serv- ice via their personal wireless phones anywhere their cruise ship takes them in international waters. Island Cruises'

Island Escape incorporated a new com- munications offering developed by

Wireless Maritime Services. The offer- ing combines satellite and wireless serv- ices to provide the cruise line industry and its passengers with on-board wire- less service. Wireless service is now available on the Island Escape for many passengers with GSM phones operating on the 900 MHz frequency, which is common throughout Europe.

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Stratos Offers F33 MPDS

Stratos Global has available Mobile

Packet Data Service (MPDS) for

Inmarsat Fleet F33, bringing always-on connectivity and data-transmission- based billing to smaller maritime ves- sels. MPDS for Fleet F33 features per- sistent connectivity at speeds up to 64 kbps incoming from the satellite and up to 28 kbps outgoing from the terminal.

MPDS connectivity is available within

Inmarsat's spot beam coverage area and users pay only for the amount of data sent and received, rather than the amount 20 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News