Staying calm at high seas: RSCC to provide connectivity options for passenger, cargo, and unmanned shipping
On September 22, at the conference entitled ‘SMART SHIPPING. Digital Technologies, Satellite Communications and Navigation in Shipping’, Mikhail Glinka, Sales Director of Operator and Corporate Solutions in RSCC, presented the company's options to provide ship passengers and crews with usual level of media consumption and communications. Today as many as 383 vessels, including 20 ice-class ones, are operating in the "RSCC marine network". All of them have access to the Internet, local networks and are able to communicate with the headquarters of maritime operations, receive cartographic data, and, in some cases, use television. With help of six satellites with seamless switching, the network covers 99% of Russia’s water zones, as well as those of the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans.
Before the end of the current year, it is planned to orbit the new Express-AMU3 multi-beam satellite, specially produced for providing access to high-speed Internet, using small-size terminals. With AMU3 RSCC will be able to offer a fundamentally new quality of communication services to ships in the Far East and in the Arctic Ocean as early as in 2022. After the launch of the Express-RV system in highly elliptical orbits in 2024, the coverage area of the maritime network will be expanded to the entire Arctic Ocean, and the speed of Internet access and data transmission will increase to 80 Mbps.
According to Mikhail Glinka, “Unmanned navigation can radically change the industry of sea and ocean cargo shipping, bringing great benefits to ship owners and the economy as a whole. On long-haul or regular routes, far from areas with heavy traffic, a cargo ship can go on autopilot to the port of destination for several days, using environment recognition technologies, tools for assessing weather and ice conditions along the route, as well as route maps of other vessels. The presence of a pilot will only be required in coastal and port areas. Since 2018 RSCC has been a participant in a pilot project for unmanned navigation, run by Marinet Industry Center. RSCC is currently the only Russian operator that has expertise in providing services for unmanned navigation."