Maritime Satcomms Market

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Overview as of 2016

The majority of ships use a broadband solution for their main voice and data communications (L-Band or VSAT, or a combination). Legacy terminals are still around and a small number of ships use, for example, Inmarsat Fleet 77 for voice and (limited) data.
When it comes to safety, in order to conform to GMDSS requirements ships typically have Inmarsat C, B or F77 terminals installed for distress communications.
Other types of (non-voice, small data use) satellite communications use systems with lower bandwidth. This includes M2M/telemetry such as machinery monitoring (e.g. ORBCOMM, Inmarsat IsatM2M) and ship-tracking/LRIT (Inmarsat-C, EMS Satamatics, Iridium Bluetraker), among others.
Inmarsat remains the biggest player by some margin.

Broadband satcomm solutions are grouped by the frequencies they occupy. The main groups are L-band and VSAT.
L-band solutions include Inmarsat FleetBroadband, Iridium OpenPort, and Thuraya. Each of these uses the respective company’s own satellite constellation. Inmarsat and Thuraya L-band use satellites in geosynchronous orbit (i.e. they do not move relative to the motion of the earth and have regional gaps in coverage), whilst Iridium uses Low-Earth Orbit satellites (circle the globe several times per day and provide truly global coverage).
VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) technology itself uses three main bands –C-band, Ku-band, and Ka-band. There are over 70 VSAT providers, with the main ones including KVH, SpeedCast, Vizada, ShipEquip, etc. They tend to use a number of different satellite constellations.
L-band uses a lower frequency and thus requires a larger antenna than the VSAT bands. On the other hand the longer wavelength means L-band signals are not as susceptible to “rain fade” – i.e. deterioration in heavy weather.

The next generation of upcoming satellite is the HTS (High Throughput Satellite), which refers to any satellite that has at least twice the throughput of a traditional FSS (Fixed Satellite Service) satellite for the same amount of allocated frequency on orbit, and that makes use of frequency reuse and multiple spot beams to increase throughput and reduce the price per bit delivered. Upcoming HTS services include Inmarsat Global Xpress (which uses new Inmarsat Ka-band satellites but is integrated with the existing L-band network for back-up), O3b, Telenor Thor-7, and Intelsat EPIC.
Ships want more and more bandwidth and the price is coming down. Mariners like to stream digital content such as movies and music, and this uses a lot of data. BYOD (bring your own device) wi-fi connectivity is increasingly important to mariners.