Mobile satellite communications company Inmarsat has announced on 27th January 2021 that it has secured an agreement with offshore vessels operator Tidewater. The project’s aim is to advance Tidewater’s digitalisation strategy by upgrading the majority of its active fleet to Fleet Xpress.
Tidewater was one of the largest users of Inmarsat’s legacy iFusion service, which was scheduled for network shutdown on December 31, 2020. Tidewater and Inmarsat created a joint project team and comprehensive plan to fast track vessel installations and upgrades.
The project was expected to be delivered in six months, with a scope of 60 active vessels, across 15 countries and involving a team of 75 from the combined organisations.
According to Inmarsat, all 60 vessels in the project were successfully transitioned before year-end, without experiencing any disruptions during the iFusion shutdown events. In January, Tidewater will have 56 active vessels with Fleet Xpress providing new capabilities for their vessels, crews and customers.
“This transformational project advanced Tidewater to a new level of vessel communications with Fleet Xpress’s combination of high-speed Ka-band and continuous back-up using L-band creating an always on bandwidth for our vessels,” Tidewater’s Cherise Brooks, IT program manager for this project said.
“Tidewater has deployed this new technology to provide internet demands for crews and customers, a capability previously not available for these vessels. The project success of achieving an aggressive six-month schedule and significantly upgrading our fleet with advanced technology was only made possible by the exceptional efforts of the Tidewater shore based teams, Tidewater crew members, Inmarsat and their partners.”
Click here to read more about the partnership of KVH with Kilo Marine for its watch maritime IoT solution.
Credit: Inmarsat
