Germany: Stratos Announces Deployment of FleetBroadband Systems for H&P Vessels

Stratos Global, the leading global provider of advanced mobile and fixed-site remote communications solutions, today announced it is nearing completion of its deployment of the Inmarsat FleetBroadband satellite communications service on 55 commercial vessels for Harren & Partner Ship Management GmbH & Co. KG (H&P).

Based in Bremen, Germany, H&P is a large European shipping company with a global fleet including bulkers, tankers, feeders, heavy-lift carriers, container vessels and dock ships. FleetBroadband from Stratos already has been successfully deployed on 40 H&P vessels. Deployment on 15 additional vessels will be completed in the coming months. The service also will be deployed on new vessels that H&P expects to build in 2012.

FleetBroadband from Stratos provides H&P with broadband connectivity while at sea – for email, Internet access and voice communications – ensuring optimal vessel performance, business operations and crew productivity. The deployment includes accounting authority and point-of-activation services from Stratos. As an added benefit, this agreement provides H&P with recently announced lower FleetBroadband voice rates of 55 cents per minute.

This deployment for H&P includes the full range of The Stratos Advantage value-added services for which Stratos has become well known. Those services – which are ensuring that H&P attains the highest possible FleetBroadband performance, security and cost control – include:

— The online Stratos Dashboard, which provides H&P with cost and traffic control, firewall management and many other benefits.

— AmosConnect, Stratos’ sophisticated communications application, to manage all interoffice communications and improve monitoring of Whitelist and Blacklist changes. Stratos also provided H&P with its own private email domain for this network.

— Stratos’ new AmosConnect Crew CommCenter that enables seafarers to stay in contact with home via calling, private email and SMS at affordable, flat global rates – while enjoying true onboard Internet café features, such as prepaid chatting, prepaid web browsing and access to global and local news services.

–Stratos ChatCards for crew calling, which have contributed to higher H&P crew satisfaction by providing easy billing and ordering.

To enhance Internet security for this network, Stratos also implemented an encrypted Virtual Private Network (VPN) via IPSec between its Land Earth Station in Burum, The Netherlands and H&P’s corporate office in Bremen. H&P makes full use of the encrypted VPN’s remote dial-in option from Bremen to all its vessels, which provides direct access to each FleetBroadband terminal, the system’s firewall and the captain’s computer system

“In the design and implementation of this FleetBroadband network, Stratos demonstrated its ability to customize an advanced system to our precise requirements,” said Caspar Graf von Spee, H&P Director. “We appreciate being able to secure this type of comprehensive solution – including new terminals, airtime, cost-containment applications, remote-access tools, our own email domain and encrypted VPN tunnel – from a single provider.”

Stratos President and CEO Jim Parm said, “Our solution for H&P is an excellent example of Stratos creativity and precision implementation. Our ability to provide convenient FleetBroadband Bundles eliminated H&P’s need for capital investment in hardware. It is rewarding to see how our integrated solution is enabling H&P to benefit from the latest communications technology in the most cost-effective manner possible.”

For H&P, this FleetBroadband system provides an optimal data connection for numerous other onboard applications, including planned maintenance systems, purchase systems and remote management – which allows H&P headquarters personnel to manage the ship’s computers without visiting the vessel.

With FleetBroadband, H&P now has the capability to achieve high-performance, direct remote access to the ship’s computer terminals, the FleetBroadband terminal and the onboard firewall via popular remote-support applications. In the future, H&P has the option to use FleetBroadband for engine-performance analysis and emissions monitoring, to help reduce fuel costs and comply with emissions regulations.

In addition to its commercial vessels, H&P deploys FleetBroadband on its 48m motoryacht Hanse Explorer. Earlier this year, H&P provided Hanse Explorer to the non-governmental organization Oceana (https://eu.oceana.org/en). Oceana is the largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation, protecting marine ecosystems and endangered species. During a two-month research expedition in the Baltic Sea, a flat-fee FleetBroadband service from Stratos provided the Oceana with reliable high-speed data connectivity for a wide range of business and crew applications.

[mappress]

Source: hme, May 19, 2011;