TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
2023 is warming up fast – in more ways than one!
During the last month, we went walking around Cuber reservoir in 0°C with snow on the slopes of Puig Major. The puddles were iced over, and there was a heavy frost on all the grass and shrubs. Fast forward two weeks, and we’re sitting at anchor in Portals Vells in 24°C. That’s the air temperature, by the way, definitely not the water temperature. The first sea swim of the season was very brief indeed!
The satellite industry has also been warming up over the last month. Starlink has been in the limelight creating all the news for the last 6 months, but it’s now time for the other kids on the block to tell us what they are up to.
As expected, the Satellite 2023 Show in Washington DC has been the venue for many new launches, the most relevant and interesting of which has been the first appearance of Amazon on the world satellite stage. Jeff Bezos’s team explained the progress of its LEO constellation Kuiper, and launched its new flat panels. Intellian also launched its new range of flat panel antennas at the show.
Outside the show, Viasat has announced 8th April as the date for the launch of their first huge satellite. The acquisition of Inmarsat by Viasat has been approved as has the Eutelsat acquisition of OneWeb. There is news from OneWeb, and where would we be without further news and changes from Starlink! So, I’ll start where I left off last month with Starlink!!
Starlink RV becomes Starlink Roam
Starlink is shaking things up for mobile RV users again. The latest is that the Starlink for RVs plan has now been wiped entirely from SpaceX’s website, and replaced with a new offering called Starlink Roam.
Initially, it looks just like a re-branding as certainly not everyone who has the Starlink RV is using it on a motor home.
The Roam plan states explicitly that it is for use on land only, but will this really be the case? In 2022, Starlink stated that they would be geo-fencing the RV to land use only, but this was never enforced, so will it really happen with the Roam?
The Regional Roam coverage is still at variable prices in different locations; $150/m in the USA; €85/m in the EU, and will work only within the same continent as the customer’s shipping address.
There is a Starlink Roam Global option for those who travel further away from their home continent. It is important to note that Starlink Roam is still offered as a best-effort service, and is always de-prioritised behind other Starlink services.
Starlink Roam – will it really be geo-fenced for land use only?
It might well happen this year, so all of you using an RV (aka Roam) – be aware. Over the past 6 months, Starlink has never specified this limit on its website, but it does now. Under the FAQs, it now describes Starlink Roam as a geo-fenced land-based service, implying it will not work at sea.
“Regional plans are geo-fenced to work on land within the same continent as the registered Shipping Address, while the Global plans work on land anywhere there is active service coverage……”
We hear the enforcement is due to start on 1st April! I am sure many of you will hope that’s an April Fool! Please let us know if you experience any change in the service after this date.
There are still plenty of grey areas that Starlink needs to sort out, including regulatory issues in certain countries. Even though they are close to global coverage, some countries have not provided regulatory approval and the service cannot be used legally in those countries. Starlink has now published a list.
There are still plenty of grey areas that Starlink needs to sort out, including regulatory issues in certain countries. Even though they are close to global coverage, some countries have not provided regulatory approval and the service cannot be used legally in those countries. Starlink has now published a list.
Kymeta OneWeb update
Kymeta has completed its first shipment of Hawk u8 antennas to OneWeb for use with its network. It will soon be available for use on land and at sea. OneWeb is putting the finishing touches on its constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites and is planning to offer its commercial broadband service in the summer – we should have pricing soon.
Intellian Flat Panels
Intellian launched its flat-panel antenna at Satellite 2023. This flat panel is designed to operate across fixed land, land mobility, maritime, government and defence sectors. The full-duplex Electronically-Steered Antenna (ESA) user terminal will operate on the OneWeb satellite network, with production slated to commence later this year.
Why is everyone developing flat panels to work with LEO constellations?
If you have been a reader of mine, you will know I have been advocating flat-panel satellite antennas as the next big thing in satellite communications for years – and on top of that, they eliminate the carbuncles from the face of very beautiful yachts!
Flat panels are ideally suited for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) networks. The OneWeb LEO satellites require satellite handovers approximately every two to three minutes, depending on the user terminal’s geographical location. As such, a flat panel is designed to electronically scan over a wide field of view within hundreds of microseconds for seamless handovers. A conventional parabolic antenna is too slow on its own so multiple parabolic antennas are required. The flat panel product design focus is on the optimisation of size, weight, power and cost, with seamless connectivity.
Amazon Kuiper shows off its new flat panels at Satellite 2023
We have been watching Amazon in the background over the past couple of years and we believe that some of the Starlink hype that SpaceX has managed to create has been due to major competition from Amazon just waiting in the wings.
Amazon is investing €10 billion in project Kuiper, its LEO constellation of 3,236 satellites, and has made some significant steps forward, which were announced at Satellite 2023 in March.
The first two prototype satellites will launch in May this year, with the start of the production satellites in the first half of 2024. The satellites are larger than the Starlink ones and are capable of processing 1 terabit per second (1Tbps) of traffic, which will outperform the Starlink satellites by a long way and have a lifetime of 7 years. They expect to have an initial beta service starting with only a few hundred satellites in space towards the end of 2024.
One advantage which Starlink has is that its satellites are launched by the parent company SpaceX, using its own launch rockets. However, Amazon has booked 77 launches, which is far more than they need, from a variety of companies, to deploy all their satellites by mid-2026. Amazon is well-funded enough to consider buying its own rocket launch system to support Kuiper. There were three Kuiper flat panel antennas launched at Satellite 2023.
The Standard design measures under 28cm square and 2.5cm thick, and weighs under 2.25kg. Amazon says the device will deliver speeds to customers of up to 400 megabits per second (Mbps). It stated that it expects the cost of this Standard antenna to Amazon to be $400!! This is considerably less than Starlink Maritime at €2,500. Will there be a price war?
An Ultra-Compact model, which Amazon says is its smallest and most affordable, is an 18cm square design that weighs about 0.5kg and will offer speeds up to 100 Mbps. This is slightly larger than a Kindle! In addition to residential customers, Amazon plans to offer the antenna to government and enterprise customers for services like “ground mobility and the internet of things.”
Amazon said the Ultra-Compact model is materially less expensive to make than the standard model.
Its largest Pro model, at 48cm by 76 cm, represents a high-bandwidth version for more demanding customers. Amazon says this antenna will be able to “deliver speeds up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps)” via space. Interesting years ahead!!
e3 Systems / Yachting Gives Back Cycling
As mentioned last month, we are holding the 5th instalment of our extremely popular e3 Systems Cycle Challenge on Friday 21st April, focused on captains, engineers, crew and colleagues in the industry. I am pleased to say that it was fully signed up in less than 3 days this year.
We are riding from the superb new Marina Tramuntana in Puerto Soller, westwards along the Ma-10 -one of the world’s most beautiful cycling routes- through the picturesque village of Deia and onto the Mirador Sa Foradada, then back for lunch in Soller.
This challenging ride of around 40km has been fully funded by us and our supporting partners; Speedcast, Swisspath Yachting and Intellian. It is free of charge to enter; the caveat being that riders donate generously on the day, every cent of which goes directly towards the work of the fine folk at Yachting Gives Back. So far, we have raised over €10,000 for YGB, which has provided food, computer equipment and even an industrial oven for homeless centres in Mallorca – and we’ve had a great deal of fun doing it!
We also look forward to seeing you at the Palma Superyacht Village at the end of the month.
