Solstad Renews Marlink Relationship
Maritime satellite communications integrator Marlink has signed a 60-month agreement to provide the Sealink Maritime VSAT solution to the Norwegian Offshore company Solstad Shipping. Their fleet of 23 vessels will use Sealink Maritime VSAT and other services from the Marlink portfolio. In recent years, Solstad has evaluated several alternatives to the Sealink VSAT services, but the flexibility of the Sealink Services, together with the support that Solstad Shipping receives from Sealink Operation (Eik Teleport), has underpinned their decision to continue a long term relationship with Marlink and has entered into the new agreement.
Tore Morten Olsen, CEO at Marlink, commented “Today people expect to work online no matter where they are. This agreement shows our position as one of the oldest and most experienced players in this market with our state of the art communication products and services.” Frode Skaar, IT manager at Solstad Shipping was also enthusiastic about the Marlink agreement, “Marlink’s Sealink solution will provide us with the bandwidth needed for business critical applications and also our crew requirements with “always-on” internet and voice call services, a must in today’s market.”
Through the provision of crew and passenger communications services at fixed, predictable costs, Solstad Shipping expects a number of improvements on board: increased crew welfare, increased quality for business facilities onboard, better communications with IT and technical support staff on shore and reduced support costs through remote support and maintenance. More specifically, the Sealink Maritime VSAT solutions include dedicated satellite bandwidth, separated between crew, administration and charter. Crew has access to always-on, free Internet for applications such as web browsing, e-mail exchange and net-banking, as well as multiple telephone lines for crew calling services. For business and administrative purposes, LAN-LAN data communications on board are in place via Sealink, as are multiple direct dial telephone lines.