Maritime vessels rely heavily on satellite for communications out at see. Photo: Bridget Coila (Flickr)

[Via Satellite 05-07-2015] Maritime satellite communications is forecast to grow to almost $5.2 billion in retail revenues by 2024, according to NSR’s “Maritime Satcom Markets, Third Edition,” report. The research firm estimates that 80,000 in-service units across all segments of the maritime market will be for Internet, with broadband connectivity providing more than 75 percent of new retail revenues over the next 10 years. The report also highlights the growing impact of High Throughput Satellite (HTS) capacity, but notes that other solutions will hold steady market share as maritime end-users look for ways to improve their operations.

“As the core of the maritime market, commercial maritime vessels — from tankers to container vessels — are continuing to look at new and innovative ways to improve their remote operations. Everything from advanced route-planning, real-time weather data, and improving crew welfare, all depend on a steady uptick of bandwidth demand. Adding in the opportunity for narrowband connectivity, which has evolved from traditional Inmarsat-type voice applications into complex networks of M2M devices bringing ‘big data,’ and other value-added services directly to end-users, the maritime markets will remain a key mobility vertical across all aspects of the satellite communications value-chain,”
said Brad Grady, senior analyst at NSR.”