SK Telink, international wireless services division of South Korea’s SK Telecom, announced on Wednesday it has started offering the country’s first high-speed mobile broadband connectivity on the Inmarsat GX satellite network to enable 5G at sea.

Based on Ka-band technology, the 5th generation satellite communication service delivers higher performance consistently with downlink speeds up to 50Mbps and an uplink to 5Mbps through more compact terminals at a lower cost than existing VSAT services.

It has so far been introduced to 7,000 ships around the world since the global launch of the network in May 2016. Most of the world’s top 20 countries with a fleet of ocean-going ships excluding India and Russia are preparing to build a smart ship environment based on the GX service.

With the introduction of the mobile broadband network to seamlessly span the world, Korean shipping companies are able to access to a smart ship system where a fuel-saving solution and a remote monitoring program are available, SK Telink said. Ship crews are also able to use email and messenger services on board with friends and families in remote areas, the company said.

The GX service also supports free automatic switching to FB (Fleet Broadband) in case of satellite disconnection, while providing remote on-ground controlling of the in-ship network and a smart box function to prevent excessive data communication.

By Lee Yong-ik and Minu Kim

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