The ever demanding superyacht owner is always looking for more. But how are the VSAT providers delivering on this promise? Words: Frances and Michael Howorth
n an increasingly changing world of satellite communication, the technology and the companies that provide it ensure that the subject of superyacht VSAT is changing just as fast. Where it as simple as new technology simply bringing faster speed, then VSAT could be thought as a sort of superyacht consumable commodity the likes of, for example, fuel oil. Here captains look at the bunker price per ton, evaluate the quality of the supplier, and make a simple, uncomplicated transaction to buy as many tonnes of the good stuff as will fill the tanks. That is easy. But sadly, VSAT is not.
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It is not just the price of bandwidth, nor is it the speed of download. It is not even just the equipment that delivers it or the service provider that makes it all happen that are changing. No, in the case of VSAT it is all of this and more. “More?” I hear you say... Yes, more because the expectations of superyacht owners and crew are changing equally fast!
The VSAT maritime market has more than tripled in size over the past two years. Corporate consolidation has seen smaller suppliers of services and equipment swallowed up, so that now, only big boys play ball. But, has this meant we are receiving a better service or faster speeds or more choice?
One welcome change is that of cost. Prices have dropped tremendously in the past year or so. “Now yachts can get VSAT connectivity for less than 1000€ a month,” says Antoine Perry, founder and director of SeaSatCom. But, he adds, “As always people are selling things they do not really know and as it is a very complex world, clients can listen to a lot of silly things because they do not understand what you are talking of. There is a lack in education, I see it every day when I discuss with captains or owners and the fact that I use layman’s terms considerably changes the paradigm.”
Pippa Nicholas, the Technical Director at and the Owner of Yacht Projects agrees. “Educating superyacht crew about the intricacies surrounding VSAT seems to be an almost never ending story. I suspect that every five years or so the next generation of captains and decision makers comes to the forefront. In the 5 years that they have taken to get into that position there has been an exponential growth in VSAT technology.” Almost every customer I meet is confused by what they have read or been told by less scrupulous salesmen, who like to baffle them with terminology such as MIR and CIR, Bandwidth and Contention. It is important that those buying from VSAT suppliers understand the terminology because otherwise they cannot make informed decisions.
MIR stands for Maximum Information Rate and is sometimes also called BURST speed. In a contract this is usually shown numerically the likes of 4Mbps down or often 4096 Kbps.
CIR stands for Committed Information Rate. This is the Guaranteed bandwidth or speed of information delivery that the user is going to experience. In the contract it’s usually shown as 1Mbps down or can be written as 1024Kbps. It should not be confused with Bandwidth which is what we all determine as ‘internet speed’ of service or how ‘fast’ the connection is.
Then there is Contention Ratio. This is the number of other vessels, the supplier has sold the MIR to, and you as a customer will have to share the MIR with. In other words, in the example above where you have an MIR of 4Mbps and CIR of 1Mbps the contention ration will be 4:1 meaning you as a customer will share the bandwidth between 4 vessels.
Buyer beware
Understanding these terms makes comparing estimates easier. But Pippa warns, “Buyer beware! The terms used and the way they are used are
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