Inside the 12-mile (4 G) range, SCG provides its workers on its ships a Crew Welfare Range with free internet. To know this, SCG needed a cost-effective plug&play device that is still working and does not interfere with the activities of the team.

o make this happen, a seamless transition between 4G and the Inmarsat Fleetbroadband (or Iridium Open Port L-Band satellite connection) outside that zone was needed. Castor Marine’s 4G Connectivity Package (incl. dedicated software installed on the Peplink routers) ensures a seamless failover of connectivity between the 4G and satellite connection. Hence, the crew doesn’t notice the transition and simply can get on with their work. Furthermore, the connection allows for real-time data insights from any device.

When Clemens Ros and Marc van Gemert from SCG’s IT department wanted advice about a 4G service for its crew, Castor Marine came up with a hybrid connectivity solution switching between 4G LTE and L-band.

“We chose Castor Marine because of the pleasant cooperation, correct pricing and their responsive way of working which ensures that the technical solution we were looking for was customised to our fleet. Actually, some of our captains have already reported that they had 4G connectivity at 45 nautical miles from the coast. We are looking forward to see the system installed and then be able to forget about it,” said Marc van Gemert, IT Manager at SCG.

Wherever the vessel is or with whatever network it is connected, the program ensures that even though the IP addresses change as the vessel connects to another network, a VPN tunnel stays in place.

The user is in charge with a combination of user privileges, firewalls, SD-WAN and real-time monitoring software for any single data source and access point, and others.

Maritime Business World