OneWeb and Marlink join forces to conduct first live maritime trial of LEO connectivity service

Bharti backed OneWeb and Marlink, the smart network solutions company have joined forces to conduct the first at sea trial of OneWeb’s low earth orbit (LEO) maritime service. The initial integration and evaluation will take place at Marlink’s Eik teleport (Norway), with installation and on-vessel trial scheduled for fourth quarter (Q4) calendar year (CY) 2022.

As part of the partnership, Marlink, in co-operation with Intellian and Hughes Network Systems, will carry out tests of the OneWeb maritime service validating throughput, latency and quality. Testing of hardware will include review of stability, signal tracking and handover capability.

The development represents the first ‘at sea’ maritime trial on OneWeb’s maritime satellite service and includes evaluation of the new user terminal created by Intellian with a core module from Hughes Network Systems. Capable of performing very fast handovers between satellites passing overhead, the user terminal has been specially designed for the extremes of the maritime environment.

Commenting on the development, Tore Morten Olsen, president, Maritime, Marlink, said, “As a managed service provider of hybrid network solutions across all frequencies and orbits, with customers in all verticals, Marlink has the right expertise and capabilities to help OneWeb prepare its service for the maritime market. We believe that OneWeb will be a valuable addition to the Marlink smart network solutions portfolio, providing further choice for our customers with new LEO services.”

Meanwhile, Carole Plessy, vice President, Europe and Maritime, OneWeb, said, “OneWeb’s LEO service will bring a completely new kind of connectivity to maritime users, providing a high level of quality and performance that will deliver a richer, more immersive and terrestrial-like user experience onboard ships. This is a watershed moment for the maritime connectivity market, together with our trusted partner Marlink the testing and evaluation will ensure that we have a fully robust and reliable service in place when commercial operations begin.”