MAIN HEAD Inm Fleet gets call waiting BODY Inmarsat has announced that call waiting services, which enable an incoming phone call to optionally interrupt a shipboard MPDS session, will be available on all Fleet services by the fourth quarter this year. If the ship is connected to MPDS and someone tries to phone the ship, the phone will ring onboard the ship; the seafarers have the option of taking the call (in which case the data session will be interrupted) or rejecting it. Fleet terminals are not able to carry voice and data at the same time; this means that the only way to accept a voice call when the terminal is sending data is to interrupt the data. The shipboard phone will ring for 30 seconds before disconnecting. The person making the phone call does not pay until the seafarer decides to accept the call. The call waiting will be commercially available in the 4th quarter of 2004, following 3 months software testing and 3 months testing on ships. There are various possibilities to enhance the service. This includes voicemail facilities (if the ship rejects the call) and caller ID (know who is calling before you decide whether or not to take the call). Also, linking call waiting to the shipboard computer, so the person gets an alert on his screen of an incoming call (useful if the computer is some distance away from the phone handset). Also there can be a recorded voice played to the caller while the shipboard phone is ringing (for example if the shipboard user wants to save his work before shutting down the MPDS session). SUBHEAD Other Fleet developments Inmarsat has a number of other service developments with Fleet underway. Fleet 33 now has an option for MPDS (pay as you send) data capability; currently it only has 9.6 kbps dialup data sending capability. Users have to choose one or the other. All the Fleet services have a 9.6 kbps fax channel, so they are compatible with most terrestrial fax machines (until now, Fleet 77 and Fleet 55 have only been able to send faxes at 64 kbps, "Group4," which is much faster but requires a 64 kbps fax on the receiving end). Inmarsat notes that the fax is a very simple set-up; you only need a conventional fax machine plugged into the Inmarsat fleet terminal. However shipping companies can send faxes much cheaper by sending PC faxes or e-mails. The Fleet 33 service also supports V.42bis and V.44 compression algorithms. These require special software at either end of the transmission, one to compress the data and one to un-compress it. Most internet service providers have V.42bis and V.44 compression; and then some Fleet 33 terminals (including the Nera one) have compression onboard the ship. SUBHEAD The I4s The next big development will be the launch of the Inmarsat I4 satellites, starting at the end of this year, which are 60-80 times more powerful than the current satellites (I3s). Inmarsat will make use of the new satellite power to boost up all the Fleet services (making sure all the time that Fleet 77 is always better than Fleet 55 which is always better than Fleet 33) For example, when the I4s are launched, global communications will be available on all the services which are currently spot-beam; this is the mini-M and data/fax services on Fleet 33 and 55. This would mean that 55 does everything that 77 does. But to compensate Inmarsat is promising that Fleet 77 will have a new high speed of 128 kbps, double the current 64 kpbs ISDN speed. SUBHEAD MPDS software Inmarsat has commissioned special MPDS software from Imhotek, which automatically connects a shipboard computer to MPDS and monitors how much you are spending on data. The primary aim is to make it as easy as possible to install MPDS - you just select the land earth station operator (LESO) you are using from a list and everything is done for you, and you can make sure your bill is not too high. On the same CD-ROM is a tool to enable ships to send and receive SMS (short message service) messages, via a service provider called Bigfoot. When sending SMS messages, you spend about $0.25 in satellite communications costs to log onto Bigfoot, then $0.10 to send each message to the Bigfoot server. Then you have to pay Bigfoot a further $0.08 to $0.31 per text message (depending on the destination) to transfer it terrestrially. When receiving text messages, you spend about $0.08 satellite communications costs and a $0.06 fee to Bigfoot; additional messages cost $0.01 after the first one. You also need to dial into Bigfoot to see if there are any messages; dialling in costs about $0.25. The CD also has a ultra-light messenger service which works with MSN, AOL, ICQ and Yahoo instant messenger software, (also available free from www.easymessage.net). Imhotek calculates that estimated MPDS costs of logging on 12 kb ($0.40), idle time is $0.06 per hour, contact coming online costs 2kb ($0.07), contact going offline costs 150 bytes ($0.01), short conversation of 8 interchanges costs 10kb ($0.32). Approvals for Thrane's ship security alert system http://www.tt.dk Thrane and Thrane's mini-C ship security alert system has received an "extended" type approval from Lloyd's Register and Inmarsat. It also has type approvals from the American Bureau of Shipping, Chinese Classification Society (CCS), Germanischer Lloyd, Government of India Ministry of Shipping and Polski Rejestr Statkow (PRS). The system can send the alert to up to three independent destination addresses, which, Thrane says, ensures that it can comply with any legislation, no matter how regional administrations interpret the IMO requirement. The communications are based on the Inmarsat -C service. There are no monthly subscription fees. Messages can be routed to e-mail, GSM phone, fax, telex, telephone modem and other Inmarsat -C terminals. Video over MPDS http://www.dresearch.de German company D-Research has a system to send video over MPDS, despite the varying data throughputs. The server knows what speed the data is sent to the ship at, and continually adjusts the compression accordingly. If the data speed is very low, then the pictures will stop and you will just hear the voice; the aim is the maintain a continuity in the viewer's experience. Video normally takes around 64 kbps to send, with a reasonable number of frames per minute and reasonable sound quality. However if only a 9.6 kbps line is available, it is possible to send one highly compressed and small frame every second with no sound; which is a kind of video experience. KVH - choose the image quality when you satellite web browse http://www.kvh.dk Maritime electronics manufacturer KVH has a service to enable users to specify the image quality when they web-browse. For example, if you care more about the cost of your satcoms than the quality of the pictures, you can specify the lowest quality. KVH acts as the internet service provider; so all internet traffic being browsed goes through KVH. This gives the company special abilities to filter and control the web traffic. The ISP also has data compression services; the shipboard computer must have Velocity Acceleration Software onboard for it to work. KVH has its own line of shipboard TV antennas, and sells Fleet 33 and 77 terminals manufactured by Thrane, which are the same size as its shipboard TV antennas. Many yacht owners want satellite terminals onboard a boat to match, the company says. Broström installs Virtek CommBox on 40 vessels http://www.virtek.no Swedish shipping company Broström has decided to install the Virtek Communications CommBox on 40 vessels, to handle its ship-shore e-mail. Virtek says that Broström spent "almost a year" evaluating the different systems available. With the CommBox, Broström can control the shipboard network from shore; the system automatically compresses e-mail and sends it via MPDS or dialup, whichever is the cheapest. Launch of Oceanmall.biz, shop for seafarers http://www.oceanmall.biz An online shopping mall has launched for seafarers, Oceanmall.biz, for purchasing presents to be mailed to addresses in India. The choice includes CDs (Indian artists, IndiPop, Indian instrumental, some "International", priced at around $2 to $10), watches, toys (classic games, magnetic wooden letters, peg boards, Barbie, Lion King CD), sports clothes (trainers, T-shirts, around $20 each), 7 different books, handmade decorated paintings (camel, horse, lady with lotus, lady with parrot, around $60 each), jewellery (earrings, bangles, necklace), flowers, candles and ties. Oceanbiz says that it prefers seafarers to pay for goods in advance (by cheque sent by post or credit card) but it is prepared to "make exceptions for first time to send a surprise gift if you are on board." Seafarers can download the entire site from the front page - 60kb (just an Excel spreadsheet list of items and order forms) or 900kb (the entire site). They can put it on a floppy disk (eg when on shore) and take it with them to the ship. They can also request a printed catalogue be posted to their homes. The actual order can be made with a simple text e-mail in a format shown on the website, including their credit card number and any personal message. Alternatively, they can fill in a form with their credit card number or direct debit instruction and fax / post it to Oceanmall once, maybe before leaving, to avoid having to enter their credit card details every time. An alternative is to set up a prepayment account by cheque; they can subsequently make orders against the account from onboard ship. The business was set up by tanker master Capt D C Sekhar, who had been at sea for 20 years. He realised that his seven year old son was not satisfied with a five minute phone call on his birthday and wanted to send him a present. Delivery is promised for five working days for most products; flowers within one working day and paintings within one month. They are normally delivered by courier. Prices include postage and packing. Thrane and Thrane's Fleet service network http://www.tt.dk Satcoms terminal manufacturer Thrane and Thrane is setting up an Inmarsat Fleet service network, with qualified personnel in major ports in the world able to come onboard ships and fix broken Inmarsat Fleet terminals. The service covers Thrane branded terminals and also terminals which are Thrane manufactured but branded and sold by other companies (such as KVH).