Headquartered in Leer, Hartmann operates a diversified fleet comprised of gas tankers, container vessels, multi-purpose and bulk carriers, which had previously been using Inmarsat E&E services.

The company has signed a contract for services based on Marlink’s WaveCall Ku-band and Astrium Services’ XChange solutions for an initial period of three years.

Marlink notes that the XChange unit will be the central point for each vessel’s network, allowing for administration of crew communications through pre-paid profiles. Ship owners can define individually how much crew will be charged for their usage of voice and data.

The bandwidth allowance packages under the deal come in increments of 5, 10, 20 and 30 GB.

“Crew welfare and retention are the primary drivers for upgrading communications across our fleet,” says Wilko Büscher, IT fleet manager at Hartmann.

“The new services enable us to offer very low-cost connectivity to crew members, but a by-product is that we will experience more available bandwidth and faster speeds to boost operational and logistics efficiency.”

Each vessel will have an 80cm VSAT antenna. Marlink has trained Hartmann engineers to install it by following a standardised process.

“Our solution for Hartmann is extremely competitive,” says Tore Morten Olsen, head of Astrium Services - Maritime.

“We have been able to develop a solution that offers more than enough bandwidth for both crew and operations, at costs that would only provide a fraction of the bandwidth on competing services. XChange allows Hartmann to keep full control of communication usage, either on board or from shore, regardless of vessel type or location.”

“If requirements increase over time, we have larger bandwidth packages to meet increased consumption, additionally we offer an upgrade path to WaveCall Premium, which is typically used when more business critical needs define the ship owner’s usage.”