Last month I wrote this column whilst on holiday near the north Italian lakes, where it turned out to be just as hot as the Mediterranean. We headed further north into the Alps in pursuit of cooler climes, eventually finding ourselves up at 3,800m looking across glaciers at the Matterhorn and feeling foolishly under-dressed in shorts and t-shirts… it was wonderful! What was not so wonderful was the constant signs of drought and climate change, from the forest fires which we witnessed while driving through France, to the low waters of Lago Maggiore. Even in Zermatt, the melt waters pouring off the glaciers into the valleys gradually increased as the sun rose during the day, becoming a violent torrent by late afternoon each day.
Now I’m back home in Mallorca preparing for the post-pandemic series of yacht shows and conferences as well as charity golf and cycling events.
We are hosting our fourth charity e3 Cycling Event on 14th October, together with Speedcast and Fraser Yachts, in aid of Yachting Gives Back. This one is probably the ultimate cycling challenge on our island, attracting cyclists from all over the world. We are calling it “The Big Wriggle” as the route takes our participants down the iconic hairpin switchback to Sa Calobra and then back up again! Breakfast and lunch are included. There is no charge, but in return we are relying on the generosity of cyclists to make generous donations so we can give every cent to Yachting Gives Back, allowing them to continue their work in helping those less fortunate than ourselves.
Meanwhile, continuing with my LEO satellite update, there have been some interesting developments over the last month.
Satellite Communications – LEO Super Broad band Update 3
We have increased our knowledge about Starlink over the last month through direct contact with Starlink and our evaluation client, as well as from other yachts. I will also include a small update on OneWeb and introduce you to another LEO constellation called Rivada Space Networks that I think we will hear a lot more about over the next couple of years. I hadn’t heard of them before, but they have a different architecture and value proposition. Their initial filings were made in 2014, at the same time as OneWeb and SpaceX/Starlink. So, they have been around for the same time, but did not want to go public until their FCC filings were approved.
Starlink
Our ongoing evaluation of Starlink Maritime. What have we learned this month?
A lesson in geofencing – the use of technology to establish a virtual geographic boundary
As I mentioned last month, the system we have been evaluating through one of our clients worked well in the Balearics and in Greece and in the first few days of August in Turkey. Our client sailed back to Greece from Turkey in the first week of August and both the Maritime and RV system on-board were working well. Everyone was very pleased and impressed. However, shortly after this they then sailed back the ten miles to Turkey and after five miles both systems stopped working.
Starlink support was contacted, and they replied saying they were using the system in a location where there was no service! Obviously, we and our client were surprised by this, as it had been working in the same location only the week before!
Finally, it transpired that SpaceX had created a geofence on the edge of Turkey’s territorial waters and along their entire coastline. Coincidentally, it was activated without notice at that particular time. We can only guess as to why this was done – no explanation was givens! The owner of our evaluation yacht was initially very upset, but he has now simply decided to give Turkey a wide berth in the future.
The use of RV systems at sea will be blocked
Most yachts using Starlink this summer in the Med have been using the RV system, and it has worked well. The RV system is intended to be used on land for Recreational Vehicles and is only licensed to be “portable” not “mobile”. However, it has worked around the Med, bar Turkey, this summer. The RV system costs a few hundred dollars as opposed to $10,000 for the Maritime system. The monthly airtime for the RV system costs less than $200 as opposed to $5,000 per month for the Maritime system.
So, many have questioned why they should pay for the Maritime system. We have been asking the same question, so we brought it up during our discussions with Starlink. If you think about it, Starlink didn’t introduce the Maritime business model for fun. Currently, they are losing out on the bigger bucks in their business model, and this loophole is not going to last much longer.
We have been told by Starlink that they can geofence each of their systems, and they have already started to geofence RV systems so that they do not work at sea. We questioned how precise they could be if, for example, a yacht is at anchor close to shore. Their firm answer was that they can be very precise indeed. This will start to make the use of the RV system at sea unreliable, if not impossible. We are discovering that Starlink move fast when they decide to act, so we would predict the Starlink RV system will become very unreliable for use at sea over the next few months.
Starlink Maritime flat panels launch
As I mentioned last month, we are looking forward to testing the new Starlink maritime antenna in Q422. I also mentioned that Starlink plan to provide their new antenna free of charge to existing Maritime clients.
It appears the release of the new model will be on time and their new flat panel phased array antenna was to be released at the end of September. They will start shipping at the end of September, and existing Maritime customers will be notified first. Two panels will be supplied with each order, as they have done with the two Business panels they initially supply with a Maritime order.
The illustration here is an artist’s impression of their new panel.
We understand it will be about 500x580mm with a depth of about 80mm.
OneWeb using Kymeta
A sea trial took place from Monaco in early September using a Kymeta flat panel. Results indicate that the trial was successful, with the antenna acquiring and tracking well. Solid throughput was achieved. We await further information.
Rivada Space Networks
As mentioned, I have only just heard about this new LEO constellation, but it has been in the planning since 2014. It was formally presented at Satellite 2022 in Washington DC earlier this year.
This constellation is fundamentally different to all others in that it will be “gateway less” and as a result it is not constrained by coverage. All current LEO constellation satellites communicate back to earth through land gateways. Rivada’s architecture will not have the cost of building ground stations around the world, all the processing is done on the satellite with a regenerative payload. Connectivity will be uniform throughout, from the middle of the ocean to the middle of the desert to the middle of a big city.
The architecture is the equivalent of having a fibre network in the sky, only faster. It will provide point-to-point Ka- Band connectivity with high data throughput, ultra-low latency and network transparency. All the satellites communicate with each other using laser inter satellite links, so there are very few touch points, thus reducing the opportunities for cyberthreats and creating a very secure network. Also, unlike all the other LEO constellations it is a full duplex, symmetrical system with bandwidth limited to a huge 10Gbps!!!
Six hundred satellites are to be launched starting in 2024, and the service will start in 2025.
The point-to-point connectivity will allow a yacht to breakout in a country of choice removing the need for VPNs. Any two points on Earth can connect, and it can also be used for broadcast, multicast, Global Corp Networks and leased line equivalent services.
Their claim for ultra-low latency is based on the fact that the satellites will be 35 times closer to the earth than GEO satellites, resulting in the latency of a connection to the opposite side of the world (for example, Madrid to Wellington) to be <260ms for Rivada, whereas fibre is >350ms and GEO >1000ms. Typical Round-Trip Time will be <150ms. It is also faster than the current LEO systems as they are limited by using ground stations.
This is a very interesting constellation development to watch over the next couple of years as the concept is quite different
Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information. We will have a booth at the Superyacht Technology Conference in Barcelona and METS in Amsterdam. We’ll be running a seminar on Connectivity at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show and will be walking the Antigua Charter Yacht Show. If you would like to meet up, please let us know.
Roger Horner – e3 systems
e3 VSAT or SUPER DATA
+34 971404 208
