The V-SAT was installed on board the Wilh. Wilhelmsen owned vessel M/V Tampa in November 2006 and has been in operation since then.
The V-SAT was installed on board the M/V Tampa in November 2006 and has been in operation since then. Here is a report on the installation from the Master of the vessel;
"Apart from a few teething troubles and requirements of adjustments it has remained in effective service. The installation of V-SAT has been very well received by the crew on board as it has helped them keep in touch with the day-to-day happenings around the world through the free internet provided on board. The communication has become quite good and has overcome lot of difficulties. Previously the communication on board was through the Inmarsat-B. In spite of Inmarsat-B being a digitised version of Inmarsat-A and comparatively cheaper than Inmarsat-A, the quality of connection as far as data services is concerned was not too good as we faced several break-ups in the connections, especially when large amount of data was being transferred, which lead to increase in communication costs, as additional calls had to be made to complete the transfer of data.
With the installation of V-SAT this problem has been solved. Now the communication is routed through the V-SAT which has 24 hrs internet connection and break-up problems have vanished. The costs have come down considerably too.
As far as crew is concerned the installation of telephones via the V-SAT and use of Sealink Telephone cards, their individual communication cost (private telephone call) have come down appreciably. The very fact that through the V-SAT, any crew member can get through easier access to his near and dear ones any time of the day has helped a lot in relieving stress from the crewmembers. As far as official correspondence is concerned, larger amount of data can be easily transferred without worrying too much of the costs involved, as the satellite airtime that is applicable in the dial up connection (through Inmarsat-B) is not levied here.
Communication is fast and reasonably reliable. However, the speed of the internet connection (64 Kbps) is a bit slow and it takes some time to transfer larger amount of data (with attachments), however since the costs involved are not proportional to the time taken and the amount of data, it is still very much a cheaper option. Presumably, in future higher speeds of connections can be expected as the technology evolves itself and the cost factor reduces accordingly.
We have faced some problems which are inherent in any given new project implementation, but we feel that installation of V-SAT terminal overall has been a great boon to the crew members and is highly appreciated by one and all. In spite of the cost involved in implementation of this technology, keeping in mind the interest of the crew serving on board, the owners and the management decided to go ahead with the project implementation and carried it out successfully. All crew members join together to congratulate and thank the owners and management for this. We are sure that the success of this venture will give the confidence boost to the owners and management to implement this project on all their ship’s, which will definitely go a long way to make the motto “Aim for No. 1” of this company a reality very soon."