Eutelsat Communications Nails Down Deal With Telenor Maritime

Eutelsat Communications has secured a multi-year contract with Telenor Maritime to provide Ku coverage on a regional basis for sailing areas in Europe, Trans-Atlantic crossings, the Caribbean, and South East Asia.

“We are pleased to extend our collaboration with Eutelsat,” says Lars Erik Lunøe, CEO of Telenor Maritime. “Eutelsat was selected based on its ability to deliver the right platform/ and service mix to suit our target markets and the flexibility to accommodate our high standards with respect to the latency of voice traffic, capacity management, and deployment flexibility.”

Eutelsat will leverage several of its satellites in order to deliver targeted capacity with guaranteed levels of throughput to specific sailing areas under a managed services agreement. It will enable the delivery of high speed internet connectivity to cruise and ferry passengers by extending GSM roaming to the vessel and/or selling access to on-board WiFi networks. From the outset of the contract, Telenor Maritime Vessels will progressively transfer vessels onto the network in a proactive manner.

At a later stage, Telenor Maritime will migrate vessels onto Eutelsat’s Ka band satellite, Konnect VHTS in Europe when it is available, making it the first reference customer from the maritime industry on the new satellite.

“We thank Telenor Maritime for placing its trust in Eutelsat, and making us its main supplier of managed maritime connectivity services, enabling it to extend its offer of high-speed connectivity to its customers,” says Philippe Oliva, Chief Commercial Officer of Eutelsat Communications. “This contract testifies to the unparalleled coverage of Eutelsat’s fleet as well as its flexible and innovative approach in delivering tailor-made solutions for its customers.”