The Palma docks are relatively quiet, and most vessels are out for what we all hope is a good and busy season, reflected in the fact that, with the 2023 season under their belts and the Starlink system proven as a game-changer, usage has been higher this year as vessels install the service and appreciate its groundbreaking (an unusual adjective for a satellite system…) capabilities. There seems to be little let-up in requirements for new systems and whilst many vessels have Starlink installed – in some form – already, there are many that don’t!
What now for RV/ROAM?
As ever, Starlink continues to develop their offering and in line with these developments, are now showing signs of tightening up various aspects of the service. Those days of unlimited access on an RV/ROAM antenna in the middle of the Atlantic look firmly to be over.. It’s difficult to tell if this original laissez faire approach was intentional or not, although it was extremely successful in developing huge interest in the system across our sector. The continuing developments are primarily to ensure that the correct systems are used for the purposes intended, i.e. Starlink Maritime for maritime users, rather than ocean-going RVs and in some cases, even Residential systems..
All Starlink systems – whether RV/ROAM, maritime or residential – provide superfast speeds and low costs compared to older VSAT services. Starlink are understandably keen to make sure each user enjoys optimum performance and user-experience. What is of growing importance to them is ensuring that their network is being utilised correctly.
GEO fencing
With this in mind, we are seeing that Starlink have started to prune their network to also ensure that usage is available in specifically-authorised areas – a rapidly developing dynamic that has the potential to cause some issues in certain-well-cruised areas, taking the Turkish coast as an example during Med-summer 2024.
The geo-fencing capability of the LEO network allows Starlink to continue to refine very clear boundaries on where the service can (and cannot…) be used. In authorized regions, these boundaries have been set cell-by-cell, with each cell a hexagon-shape approximately 20km across – and in the context of ‘land cell coverage whilst at sea’, broadly following an authorized area’s coastline.
Up until July, a cell covering the sea but also touching just 1% of the land would be classed as a land cell, thus extending land coverage to around 20km out to sea (and in some cases further). This distance from land was not exact, as it depended on where the cell touched the land and in some cases, the distance might actually be less than 20km offshore.
Priority data and mobile data – understanding the difference
This was an important feature for early Starlink adopters, because it meant that users of the RV/ROAM service could connect via Starlink quite far out at sea – and also enjoy Mobile Data at sea when their Priority Data bundle was used up, as they effectively remained within land cell coverage. If they were planning to venture outside of this land cell, they could additionally Opt In to Priority Data (coverage offshore, outside of land cells) on a pay/GB basis, and then Opt Out once they were back in a land cell for continuing unlimited Mobile Data connectivity. ‘Mobile Data’ can be slightly misleading in the context of usage at sea, as it primarily refers to an RV on land – which is of course mobile!
This has now all changed. Starlink have used their geo-fencing to adjust the way the cells work, with the following new structure.
Crossing the line
Authorised countries (eg. Spain, Italy, France etc) will now be geo-fenced at 22km offshore. This will be a relatively straight line, rather than the haphazard cell structure and associated variables that were in place before. This means that RV/ROAM services will work within this area and be able to use free and unlimited Mobile Data once their Priority Data has run out.
However, they will no longer be able to Opt In to Priority Data once the 22km geo-fence has been crossed and the RV/ROAM service will no longer work until you are within the 22km of the coast. This will have significant consequences for the many RV/ROAM-equipped vessels operating further offshore and for crew-only delivery trips across the Med although even in retrospect, it remains a good deal to have done for those early RV/ROAM adopters.
In combination with this new structure, unauthorized countries (eg. Turkey, UAE, Montenegro) will be geo-fenced so that ALL services (both Maritime and RV/ROAM) will stop once they are within 500 metres of the land. Once you get outside of 500m, the Maritime service will work again, whilst RV/ROAM services by design should not work at all until you travel back to within 22km of a specifically authorised region.
Until recently, it seemed that although Turkey was an unauthorized region for Starlink, as it still worked in parts of the south-west although less so in the north. However, vessels have been reporting to us that they are now experiencing the 500m cut off exactly as described above – so the implementation of the new geo-fencing is firmly up and running in Turkey specifically, with other regions to follow.
So this is not the end of the geo-fencing story. At present, there are many islands of the Caribbean that remain as un-authorised areas and whilst newly authorised countries are being added on a weekly basis, the implications of this on dual-season vessels visiting the Caribbean for this forthcoming winter 24/25 season could be significant.
e3 Systems, as an official reseller of the Starlink Maritime system, have had to keep closely on top of these developments, knowing that a deeper dive into what appears to be a relatively simple geo-fencing, pricing structure – and the ability to ‘get away with an RV for the moment’ – is quite a bit more complicated than at first thought.
Please give us a call if you need to understand it further – as there are all manner of contingency and back-up options that can be tailored to a vessel’s specific agenda and related connectivity needs.
The America’s Cup – Barcelona
As this goes to press, the fantastic 2024 Paris Olympics will have had their closing ceremony, and this will be followed by the next world class event – right on our doorstep in Barcelona.
With apologies to the many egg-sucking grannies that I feel sure are out there, the America’s Cup is a match racing sailing regatta (just one boat against another in a one-on-one duel) that takes place between the existing holder (New Zealand) and whoever is the winning challenger amongst all the competing challenger syndicates – decided through the Louis Vuitton Cup.
It is also the oldest trophy in international sport, dating back to 1851 when the visiting schooner America challenged 15 yachts from the Royal Yacht Squadron for a race around the Isle of Wight – and whipped them all, taking the 100 Guinea Cup as it was then known, back to the New York Yacht Club on 44th Street, Manhattan, where it remained bolted to a plinth for 132 years.
The Australians were the first country outside America to win it again, back in 1983 when the Australian Prime Minister of the time, Bob Hawke, famously said “Anyone who sends people to work tomorrow is a bum!” and that old maverick Alan Bond turned up at the New York Yacht Club with his gold-plated spanner and took the Cup back to Freemantle, Western Australia – since when it has also been won by both the Swiss and the Kiwis, the current holders.
Held every three to four years, many people regard the 1920s and 30s as the Cup’s heyday, when various industrial barons of the age – Liptons, Sopwiths, Vanderbilts etc – competed in the magnificent J-Class yachts of which, having disappeared almost completely, there are now no less than nine on the water – three restored originals and six reproductions of boats that were either designed at the time but never built, or were scrapped during the austerity during and after WW2.
However, the America’s Cup remains the absolute pinnacle of yacht racing and the latest design for the class is the AC75 in which this year’s Cup will be contested – 75’ hydro-foiling monohulls capable of bursts of over 50 knots or nearly 100km/h. Otherwise, competing in the Cup remains the money-pit of old and the domain of the super-rich, with budgets from $80 – $200m spent on a well-funded campaign.
It will be a spectacular event this year, starting in late August with the final race between New Zealand and the winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup from the 12-27th of October, with a host of other racing built around the main event, including for the first time, an America’s Cup competition for women and youth in the AC40 class.
e3 Systems has been working with one of the teams and thus far, they have now purchased three Starlink systems for their Chase Boats 1 & 2 and their new hydrogen-powered chase boat. These chase boats follow the yacht, collecting data from the 100s of sensors on board and sending this data in real time via our Starlink panels back to their base in Port Vell so that it can be analysed, also in real time.
The racing is carried live on YouTube – and in Spain on TVE, TV3 and Barcelona TV.
