Atlantic Offshore invests in vessel connectivity

The Norwegian offshore service provider is implementing Fleet LTE across the multifunctional fleet operating in the North Sea, including vessels for offshore supply, seismic support and oil recovery duties.

Fleet LTE enables Atlantic Offshore’s vessels to connect to 4G/LTE offshore fibre networks from fixed and floating production infrastructure in the North, Norwegian and Barents seas and from coastal towers when in range.

Out of range of LTE coverage zones, vessels will switch seamlessly on to Inmarsat’s Ka-band service, Fleet Xpress, with FleetBroadband L-band for further unlimited back-up.

LTE/4G offers high-speed, low-latency connectivity for a range of communications applications, while Ka-band offers high speeds over geostationary satellites with full coverage over the region and L-band lower speeds but with resilience and 99.9% network availability.

Atlantic Offshore selected Fleet LTE for its own business connectivity, crew welfare services, onboard media, ability to upgrade and downgrade in line with demand, and for a separate bandwidth pipe for charterers.

“Following our positive experience with Fleet LTE on board one of our vessels, we opted to roll the solution out across our entire fleet,” said Atlantic Offshore Management manager for quality, health, safety, environment, chartering and operations Ove Gjerstad.

“Seamless communications across three modes of connectivity provided by one partner mean we can rest assured our vessels are always connected, with no risk of drop out during transit, no hidden costs and no juggling multiple contracts.”