All of us like to stay connected with the rest of the world for various reasons. It is for safety, socializing or communication purposes. We have a lot of options on land to stay connected, but most of these do not work on sea. The network works only for a few kilometers near the shore. This is where a maritime satellite network comes into the picture.
Maritime satellite offers ways to stay connected on sea with other fleet members or with people on land at a reasonable rate. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO), a UN body, set up the International Maritime Satellite Organization (Inmarsat) as a nonprofit organization. The main aim of setting up Inmarsat was to give a satellite network for communication between vessels. This would give a great opportunity to find and save ships in distress. Over the years, the organization became private and began serving commercial fleets with means to stay connected on sea. Slowly other companies like Iridium and Globalstar also launched maritime satellite networks.
Services like voice calling, email, internet access and information related to weather and fishing they offer on a maritime satellite network. Apart from these regular services, some vessels also use it to keep the shore companies informed of their location. Distress signaling is an important reason for adopting satellite network on sea.
Voice calling enables people on sea to call up their counterparts or family on land and keep them informed as well as enquire their whereabouts. Inmarsat and Iridium offer voice calling services. Commercial vessels use the voice calling for daily business operations.
Satellite phone email they have for updating the place, or sending emails. It can also be used for social networking or updating blogs. Vessels now prefer Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to voice calling to take advantage of the lower data rates. A judicious choice will make sure the best payback of more talk time with less data exchange. Satellite VoIP also makes crew calling easier with prepaid cards as an available option irrespective of the satellite provider.
Internet access is also provided the maritime satellite but the end users should definitely have a firewall router to increase speed, prevent unwanted downloads and thus an inflated bill. Thus a maritime satellite network offers services for every kind of need on the sea; it is now up to you to make optimum use of the available resources by choosing the correct plan and equipment.