Marlink has boosted satellite capacity in the Indian Ocean and around the Falkland Islands with specific focus on delivering reliable, high bandwidth VSAT services to commercial fishing vessels. The new capacity is already enabling improved vessel and fleet operations and providing greater access to voice calling and Internet for crews on a number of Spanish tuna vessels in the Indian Ocean serviced by Marlink partner Nautical, while the extra bandwidth around the Falkland Islands has been put in place to meet a predicted spike in demand as more companies look for new fishing grounds.

While delivering services direct to the end-user, Marlink also partners with leading satcom providers globally, such as Nautical, to deliver multi-band services to fishing fleets. Together they enable fishing vessels to leverage always available connectivity to improve operational efficiency and safety, while providing all-important crew communication facilities. The proximity of partners to their respective national fisheries supports Marlink to provide solutions designed specifically for regional demands, such as the recent coverage extensions implemented to serve key fishing grounds.

"Together with Marlink we offer a diverse portfolio of cutting-edge satcom technologies including MSS solutions to over 600 vessels and VSAT for 65 vessels. At the same time we are committed to ensuring that the infrastructure we provide to our fishing customers is ready for the future," said Eric Friedrich, Sales Director, Nautical. "The new capacity on the Sealink network is vital to meet the growing demand for bandwidth from the tuna fleets operating in the Indian Ocean, while more capacity around the Falkland Islands will help Spanish fishing companies to operate even further afield."

"Fishing has its own set of unique challenges. Vessels can go to sea for weeks, even months at a time and the environment can be extremely hazardous, making communication for operational performance and the crew's welfare vital," said Tore Morten Olsen, President Maritime, Marlink. "The recent network expansion in key fishing regions is improving life aboard, while reflecting that Marlink can provide as much value to our service provider partners developing solutions for customers in different maritime verticals as we do in direct sales to end-users."

A key component of Marlink VSAT services for fishing vessels on the Sealink network is the integration of Marlink's centralised IT and communications management system, XChange. Ensuring skippers and crew can focus on safety and catch performance at sea, XChange enables trouble-free service management in addition to easy administration of crew access and accounts, automatic switching between the primary VSAT service and secondary L-band service, crew welfare services such as XChange Media and Telemed, and remote control and maintenance capabilities enabled by the unique Universal Remote Access service.

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