VSAT and IoT on ships (Russian market)

Main articles:

• What is the Internet of Things
• VSAT, Very Small Aperture Terminal

2021: Volume growth to 620 million rubles

The Russian market for VSAT and IoT on ships, despite the pandemic, is growing at a high rate, almost twice as fast as the global one. In 2021, the revenue of the Russian segment amounted to 620 million rubles, an increase of 15% compared to 2020. Experts estimate the average annual growth of global market indicators at only 7.5%. This became known on February 14, 2022.

The international service provider Orange Business Services analyzed the Russian VSAT market and IoT on naval vessels in 2021. In shipping, as a rule, the VSAT satellite Internet (subscriber terminals with a small diameter antenna, Very Small Aperture Terminal) and innovative IT solutions are used for communication with the outside world.

Russia is one of the three countries with the longest coastline, and the maritime border of 39.4 thousand km in length is only a little less than the equator - 40.1 thousand km. The length of inland waterways is almost 101.5 thousand km, by this indicator Russia is second only to China (126.6 thousand km).

I Russia have, transport providing, fishing and scientifically research fleets. According to reports, to data Orange today almost 3.5 thousand naval vessels fly under the Russian flag. For some regions of Siberia and the Far North, water transport is the main way to deliver goods from the "big land."

Interest in equipping ships with satellite, communication broadband and IoT systems is growing worldwide, despite the crisis. During the pandemic, the need for high-speed Internet steamship and the volume of consumption of "heavy" increased significantly, content and use increased. cloud services

The Russian segment of the VSAT and IoT market on naval vessels began to form five years ago, but as of February 2022, in terms of growth rates, it is noticeably ahead of global indicators. According to the international analytical agency Research and Markets, the segment of global marine VSAT services among the rest of the satellite services market from 2020 to 2025 will increase by 7.5% per year.

According to the results of 2021, about 900 Russian ships are equipped with VSAT and IoT sensors. At the same time, at least another 1.5 thousand ships can be equipped with VSAT and IoT by 2025. When assessing the market potential, the qualification of ships, the standard size of VSAT equipment that can be placed on them, mandatory IoT solutions were taken into account. Some modes of water transport are not included in the expert assessment, for example, which run between closely located ports and use mainly GSM.

According to Orange, the Russian market for VSAT and IoT on ships for revenue received by service providers in 2018 amounted to 396 million rubles, in 2019 - 427 million rubles, in 2020 - already 540 million rubles. According to forecasts, at the end of 2021 the market will reach 620 million rubles. In the future, the next two to three years will continue to increase by 13-15% per year.

Experts explain this growth by several factors:

• In 2015-2018, few new vessels were built in Russia, mainly due to the connection of retrofit (modernized old vessels), which were not equipped with VSAT.
  Now companies understand that business needs digital technologies that can not always be fully and effectively implemented on old ships. The global and Russian trend of the last two years is the active construction of ships, the renewal and expansion of the fleet of ships.
• Quotas for catching aquatic bioresources increased, which also contributes to the expansion of the fleet and the development of the industry.
• The Russian government is serious about developing investment projects related to the development of the Arctic and the Northern Sea Route (NSR). This is another significant factor in the growth of the Russian VSAT market and IoT on naval ships. New territories will be developed, new ships will be built, and, therefore, communication infrastructure for them.

One of the global Russian projects is the Northern Sea Route - the shortest sea route between the European part of Russia and the Far East with a length of about 5.6 thousand km. According to the Unified Interdepartmental Information and Statistical System (EMISS), transportation along this route from 2010 to 2020 increased by an order of magnitude: from 3.11 to 32.97 million tons. In 2022, regular transit freight transportation will begin along the NSR. Thus, this path will turn into a full-fledged international transport artery.

At the NSR, Orange uses the capacities of the Express AM 5/8/103 and Yamal 300/401/402 spacecraft. Developed terrestrial infrastructure - 22 hub satellite stations - provides communication to remote regions and ships. Satellites land on three geographically distributed hubs (in Moscow, Irkutsk and Khabarovsk), united by their own ground-based MPLS network.

According to Orange forecasts, in 2021, the company's revenue from VSAT and IoT on naval vessels will increase by 41% compared to 2020. Revenue from VSAT services, which include communications and satellite Internet, will grow by 31%, from IoT solutions - by 130%. IoT solutions mean fuel consumption control, labor protection, telemedicine, predictive analysis, etc.

Orange provides global seamless satellite water coverage, providing communication everywhere except in polar zones where low-orbit satellites are used. The company serves more than 150 ships in Russia. By 2025, it is planned to globally increase the number of ships to 850.

In addition to the NSR, the company provides seamless coverage on the Southern Sea Route (through the Suez Canal), using, among other things, the Russian Express-103 satellite to accompany ships landing traffic in Russia. Orange solutions allow you to automatically switch between satellites and coastal communication stations, which allows you to quickly exchange information about the state of the ship's systems and mechanisms. Also, crew members can freely communicate with loved ones.