Bird report, Fleet Broadband & mini-VSAT
When I was researching a PMY article about VSAT and Fleet Broadband sat comms, I asked a fairly reliable source what would happen if Inmarsat lost one of its new I-4 satellites. He rolled his eyes and said, “they’d be dead.” You see, while it only takes three of the new I-4 satellites to provide nearly global BGAN/FB service, the things are huge, and hugely expensive. Which is why getting the third and final bird into orbit was a big deal. Plus the launch has been delayed at least once due to the failure of a similar missile carrying a smaller satellite. I imagine tension was wicked high when the Proton Breeze lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan last night. Can we imagine the financial stress induced watching a critical business asset—for which, by the way, there is no backup—blast into space (especially now that we know how much angst a little electronics bankruptcy can cause). Well, the I-4 F3 satellite launched fine, and thus Fleet Broadband should become global soon. Meanwhile, KVH recently announced that its mini_VSAT service is also going global. I presume that if things go right, a company can do well with satellite communications, but it does seem like a hairy business.
Getting affordable fast wireless internet is the next hurdle. I don't think it will be driven by the marine demand. It's way too small to drive that development.
The wiring thing is crazy in the first place. It's expensive to lay, even all that fiber optic back bone.
Satellites will be the means off shore for sure, but if they can grab some land based market share the possibility for affordable wireless internet might follow.
Right now it's affordable for the 7 figure income crowd... and there are plenty of them.