State-owned Libyan tanker operator General National Maritime Transport Company (GNMTC) has recently completed an upgrade of its communications systems to introduce the FleetBroadband service aboard its vessels.
The company’s fleet of 24 tankers, ranging in size from small LPG and smaller product tankers to Aframax and Suezmax crude oil carriers, had previously been operating with Inmarsat Fleet 77 and Inmarsat-B services.
These terminals will remain on the vessels, and will be joined by the FleetBroadband systems to provide IP-based broadband data connections.
The new systems will be supplied by Vizada, which is also providing a package of communications services for use on the ships.
These solutions include applications managing transmission and receipt of necessary regulatory documents and forms when arriving at port, data connections for weather reports used for route planning, and other administrative tasks such as sending faxes.
GNMTC will also use SkyFile Mail e-mailing software to send mails via the FleetBroadband terminals, which is designed to compress data sent over the link in order to reduce costs.
Monitoring and control of the systems from shore can be done via an online tool provided by Vizada called The Source, enabling the ship manager or administrator to manage and track traffic, remotely activate terminals as and when required, and access a full overview of traffic on each of the vessels.
