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Crew Welfare Boost for CMA
CGM with new VSAT Services
from Marlink
05 August 2013
Marlink has been chosen by
the CMA CGM Group, the
world's third largest
container shipping group, to
upgrade the majority of its
fleet to WaveCall, Marlink's
standardized Ku-band VSAT
service. In combination with
the XChange solutions
platform from Astrium
Services, WaveCall will be
installed on over 35 CMA CGM
vessels, including the CMA
CGM Marco Polo, CMA CGM
Alexander Von Humboldt and
CMA CGM Jules Verne, one of
the largest container
vessels in the world.
As
CMA CGM's fleet covers
global trade routes,
extensive Ku-band coverage
was a key requirement when
choosing WaveCall. The
WaveCall proposition to CMA
CGM is based on a
cost-effective 5 GB/month
data plan, which enables a
significant increase in
email, web browsing and
voice calling, when compared
to the 200MB/month
FleetBroadband packages used
before.
As a responsible employer
committed to the welfare of
its crews, improving on
board communication is
important for CMA CGM's
commitment to meeting the
new IMO Maritime Labour
Conventions, which among
other important aspects of
life on board, will
establish new standards for
crew facilities, including
communications. An important
part of this is the XChange
solutions platform, which
provides enhanced control
and management of
connectivity as well as a
comprehensive set of
Internet-café like crew
communications features.
Specially developed to meet
communications requirements
of CMA CGM crew members, a
WiFi service over five
access points per vessel
will be established with
XChange, allowing crew to
connect to the Internet
using mobile devices and
laptops in the privacy of
their own cabins. Using
XChange, CMA CGM is able to
provide crew services at
prices similar to shore
based connectivity, without
increasing its own
communication spend and can
easily re-bill crew.
"CMA CGM is the world's
third largest shipping
company so we are committed
to the welfare of our 2500
seafarers permanently at
sea," comments Ludovic
Gerard, Executive Vice
President CMA Ships, CMA
CGM. "Our desire to meet
increasing demand from our
crew members for reliable,
low-cost Internet access on
board was a primary driver
for choosing VSAT from
Marlink and combining it
with XChange, which offers
full control of the
network."
Other value added services
provided to CMA CGM include
a VPN connection for safe
and reliable operational
connectivity and
@SeaWebControl, which
provides the ability to
filter content based on the
company's IT policy.
@SEAwebControl blocks access
to specific websites,
restricts access to
bandwidth-consuming services
and gives priority to
legitimate Internet usage.
"The upgrade project follows
CMA CGM's positive
experience on its vessel CMA
CGM Magellan, which for the
last two years has been
using VSAT connectivity
supplied by Marlink, so
we're delighted that they
have decided to roll
WaveCall out for over half
the fleet and across its
largest vessels," says Tore
Morten Olsen, Head of
Maritime Services at Astrium
Services. "The WaveCall
solution provided is an
attractive entry point for
VSAT. Services can be
upgraded easily so CMA CGM's
future connectivity
requirements for crew and
operational communications
can be efficiently
addressed."
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