Abeking & Rasmussen’s Cloudbreak vessel. Photo: FLIBS.

Marlink has added satellite capacity for its yachting customers in the Caribbean and Mediterranean. The additional capacity comes as yachts are preparing to head south after this year’s Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS).

The additional  capacity builds on the existing High Speed Zones service for luxury vessels, which launched in November 2016. Extra capacity ensures higher availability and greater redundancy with a new satellite and a new beam joining the Sealink network, ensuring even higher Quality of Service (QOS) for reliable internet access, 4K TV streaming, voice calling, and high-end IP applications in the most popular yachting destinations year-round. The newly added capacity increases diversity in Marlink’s network covering the key yachting regions, ensuring that a link is always available and that communication services work seamlessly.

According to Marlink, the High Speed Zones offer the ability to boost internet speeds on short notice for fixed periods up to 20 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up, without the need to add new hardware on board. They also provide full flexibility for bandwidth requests in the 100 Mbps range, with advanced notice to allow for delivery of new hardware if required.

“Luxury vessels have high demands for bandwidth but this may not be continuous due to the seasonal nature of the business, so flexibility in service levels delivered by our High Speed Zones enables better management of Investment Tax Credit (ITC) spending on board,” said Tore Morten Olsen, Marlink’s president of maritime.

This article was updated for accuracy on Nov. 3, 2017.