Pacific Basin Completes KVH mini-VSAT System Deployment on 99 Vessels

March 09, 2017

KVH Industries, Inc., announces that Pacific Basin Shipping Limited has completed the deployment of KVH’s mini-VSAT Broadband solution to support Pacific Basin’s initiative to modernize ship-shore communications on their entire fleet of owned ships. Pacific Basin is one of the world’s leading owners and operators of modern Handysize and Supramax dry bulk ships. 

“Satellite communications continue to become more cost-effective over time as requirements rapidly grow for bandwidth and speed,” says Capt. Uttam K. Jaiswal, Pacific Basin’s general manager – marine. “Aside from the obvious business requirements, we at Pacific Basin see value in enabling our seafarers to keep in contact with family and friends through the Internet. The new equipment will also enhance shore-to-ship crew training and support for safe ship operations.”

The solution, initially chosen by Pacific Basin in the second quarter of 2016, includes: KVH’s mini-VSAT Broadband^sm service; TracPhone^® V7-IP Ku-band antenna system designed and built by KVH, combined with an Iridium OpenPort^® for backup; customized CommBox^TM management solution; and IP-MobileCast^TM content delivery service. All the hardware is protected by the KVH OneCare^TM extended warranty. The solution also comes with the myKVH^TM portal, which provides vessel location, connection details, management, and control of the data usage onboard.

Pacific Basin chose KVH’s IP-MobileCast content delivery service to provide crewmembers with NEWSlink^TM TV content – international news channels plus TV channels in crew members’ native languages. This helps to boost morale onboard, as crews feel closer to home when they can watch the same programs as their families on shore. The package also includes daily NEWSlink newspapers with news and sports from the crews’ native countries, including the capability to read the newspapers from their own mobile devices.

The fully integrated solution, including antenna hardware, control units, and all connecting cables, is shipped with a compact footprint, which is important for a global fleet striving for timely installations. “Our global service partners were able to easily accommodate the Pacific Basin vessels’ schedules and, as a result, managed to deploy the solution on all the vessels in a short period of time,” says Tommy Fung, KVH’s North East Asia sales manager.

“We are honored that Pacific Basin has chosen KVH’s leading mini-VSAT Broadband service for their fleet,” says Vivian Quenet, KVH vice president, Asia-Pacific sales. “We are proud to contribute to Pacific Basin’s success by providing an entire suite of hardware backed by our commitment to deliver the best connectivity and services.”