Building Better Systems
“Our target is to bring onboard ships wireless experiences similar to what users experience on land. With a combination of the newest technologies, excellent voice and data quality, up to date services and seamless usage of any GSM or CDMA phone, On Waves is rapidly becoming one of the leading players in the maritime field,” said Constantin Simeonidis, CEO of On Waves Ehf, headquartered in in Reykjavik, Iceland.
On Waves has been active for two years as the maritime GSM network of SIMINN that has been involved in the marine wireless field since 2003 providing roaming services. “On Waves is targeting all maritime market segments including ferries, navy ships, oil rigs, offshore vessels, fishing fleets and the cruise-ship market,” he explained.
To meet those related but different markets, the basics of the service apply to all. The service by On Waves is automatically switched on when the client’s vessel enters international waters and any mobile phones onboard will notify the user that On Waves is the network service provider. The On Waves network is linked to a client’s existing VSAT infrastructure and no dedicated bandwidth needs to be reserved. Calls are automatically routed to and from the terrestrial gateway of the client’s VSAT provider directly to On Waves’ GSM core network for call processing.
Windstar Cruises signed on with On Waves in 2008 and benefits from On Waves contracted operating base of 200 roaming agreements that provides cell phone service at sea, allowing guests to use their personal mobile phones while aboard the Wind Star and Wind Spirit from any location at sea. In addition, text messaging with high speed data GPRS and EDGE data service is also available.
In April 2009, MSC Cruises and On Waves entered into an agreement for On Waves to provide CDMA roaming services, including voice and text for all MSC vessels starting with the Lirica and Orchestra.
Vital to On Waves’ worldwide service are the hundreds of roaming agreements worldwide to cover sea and land locations. In the case of the on Waves – MSC Cruise service agreement, the roaming partner is Verizon Wireless. Other roaming partners include AT&T – Cingular, T-Mobile and every important EU-based provider.
For general maritime applications, On Waves linked to C-band or Ku-band VSAT and is able to provide from seven to 120 simultaneous voice channels, allowing crew to send and receive calls from any location worldwide. “If a company wants to enter these maritime markets it must develop its own hardware and software. Providers have to see that your system is good and reliable,” said Simeonidis. One feature is ON Waves’ use of dynamic bandwidth allocation software and enhanced voice compression codes to reduce the per call bandwidth that is required from the existing VSAT infrastructure.
Quality of Service
In targeting the cruise industry, it was important that On Waves’ technologies met passengers’ demands for clear voice and data network communications.
Maintaining the wireless services to ships worldwide is another significant challenge solved by good business planning. On Waves established three primary support legs to accomplish the job. Simeonidis’ explanation was simply that the continued successful implementation of the three elements produced the company’s success in the maritime world. “First, we have our own engineers and technicians. Second, we use a list of contractors all over the world. And, third, we work well with cruise ship providers that have their own agents and installer networks.”
“We are also working quite intensively on prepaid services for ship crews. Of course we have our own network for that. But we think crew members do not use it as widely as they should, and we are working for much lower prices for crew. Let’s say the end user price is one dollar per minute, the crew rate should be 30 or 40 cents. There are absolutely no infrastructure problems, but just the willingness of cruise companies to enable it.”
The advent of much larger cruise ships such as the Oasis of the Seas could require some communication adjustments. Simeonidis noted, “Of course if you want to service approximately 7,000 people, there definitely should be better bandwidth for the satellites. For example, on a ship like the Oasis of the Seas, if there were to be state-of-the-art services, 512 KPPS will not be enough.” But he also felt that the larger number of passengers will not necessarily translate into a proportional increase in phone demand. “It can depend just on demographics such as nationalities and on the cruise itineraries.”
Looking forward, Simeonidis said, “I think there is still enough bandwidth that cruise companies could use to provide better services. It’s about the cost. That is the real issue for the cruise industry today.” – Richard Aichele
"Published in the Summer 2009 Cruise Industry News"
