Company develops an extensive radio link system to provide passenger ships with high-speed internet
By
Rebecca Gibson |
Swedish company Nowhere Networks has developed an extensive radio link system to provide passenger ships with high-speed internet and now aims to make the Baltic Sea the world’s first “broadband sea” by.
Nowhere Networks has combined stabilised onshore antennas with ship-based antennas and cloud-based software that constantly monitors broadband speeds and adjusts to ensure that each ship gets the best possible internet connection. By doing this, the company aims to create an end-to-end broadband network that will provide passenger shipping operators with 100 times higher capacity than the currently available via satellite or long-term evolution connections, for a fraction of the cost. Passengers and crew will benefit from reliable and cost-efficient high-speed, low-latency internet and communications networks.
“The demand for safe and cost-effective broadband is enormous,” said Asbjörn Frydenlund, CEO of Nowhere Networks. “This is a breakthrough that now makes it possible to work, surf and manage social media the same as on land. We build broadband capacity on ships at a level that nobody had thought was possible.”
Nowhere Network is already providing broadband coverage to ships travelling from Stockholm, Sweden, as well as from Visby, Sweden to Helsinki, Finland and Tallinn, Estonia.
“By the end of the year, we will cover traffic to Turku [Finland], Riga [Latvia] and Oskarshamn [Sweden],” said Frydenlund. “At the current rate, we will have digitalised the entire Baltic Sea by the end of 2020. This means that ships and travellers can be fully connected at the same speed and with the same stability as on mainland.”
Finland’s Rederi AB Eckerö is one of the shipping companies that is in the process of implementing Nowhere Networks’ radiolink technology across its fleet. The brand has already successfully trialled the technology on ships operating between Grisslehamn, Sweden and Mariehamn in the Åland Islands.
“The need for data capacity is constantly increasing and the combination of sufficient reach and high capacity is a challenge,” said Kenneth Påvall, IT infrastructure manager at Rederi AB Eckerö. “After evaluations, we have now chosen the solution that we believe will provide the best capacity. The projects have run smoothly, and we are approaching our goal of having a stable and fast broadband to all passenger ships in our fleet.”