Hughes India launches Maritime Mobility Services

Hughes Communications India Ltd (HCIL), a majority-owned subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems LLC, has launched its commercial maritime mobility services in India.

HCIL was the first to receive a Flight and Maritime Connectivity (FMC) license in India, which permits the company to provide mobility services within 125 kilometers of the Indian coastline. Now, as the first to offer satellite maritime services in India, HCIL has said that the company will enable reliable and ubiquitous connectivity to vessels sailing in domestic waters – as well as internationally – through roaming partnerships with select maritime providers.

"Maritime operators in India – whether cruiselines, shipping companies or offshore oil operators – are eager to connect their vessels, crews and passengers with high-quality, satellite broadband – and we are ready to serve them today," said Partho Banerjee, president and managing director, Hughes Communications India Ltd. "We estimate that more than 500 Indian vessels will use Indian maritime services in the next three years to stay connected. Two customers have already signed on for our maritime mobility service offering."

Explaining in detail, Hughes says that until now, ships entering Indian territorial waters were required to shut down their VSAT connections; now, they can connect to HCIL's high-speed Ku-band satellite network. This connectivity ensures that ships and their crews switch seamlessly to the HCIL network (much like terrestrial mobile roaming), with uninterrupted data and voice applications from the port of origin to the port of destination.

HCIL says that its maritime mobility services can deliver high capacity and efficiency, enabling broadband access that can be used to monitor weather patterns, cut fuel costs, file regulatory documents, order supplies from sea to save time in port and improve safety, among other uses. For the crew and passenger welfare, the services make it possible for people at sea to browse the Internet, check social media, watch videos and more – with the quality comparable to that of terrestrial broadband connectivity.

The HCIL maritime service offering includes the Hughes JUPITER System platform domestically and provides for roaming among international waterways with global ecosystem partners. The JUPITER System is the next-generation platform for very small aperture terminal (VSAT) networks, designed and optimized for broadband services over both high-throughput and conventional satellites.