Tens of millions of people are now aware of the staggering 15 billion pounds (6.8 billion kg) of rubbish dumped in the world’s oceans each year thanks to a pioneering environmental mission, the Plastiki Expedition.

21 July 2010 – Tens of millions of people are now aware of the staggering 15 billion pounds (6.8 billion kg) of rubbish dumped in the world’s oceans each year thanks to a pioneering environmental mission, the Plastiki Expedition. Led by adventurer and environmentalist David de Rothschild, the ocean-crossing expedition relied solely on the clarity, quality and reliability of Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband service to spread its important message to a global audience.

Plastiki, a 20-metre catamaran that uses 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles in its hull, is on course to arrive in Sydney this weekend. Using Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband, de Rothschild and his crew have been able to keep the expedition firmly in the public eye and raise a debate on finding ways to beat waste, in particular the colossal amounts of plastic in our oceans.  

Since its departure from San Francisco on March 20, 2010, over 50 media interviews have been conducted, resulting in more than 300 print articles, 200 radio and TV broadcasts and 1,000 mentions on websites. There are over 800,000 search terms relating to Plastiki and 52,200 related images on Google.

Celebrating the eco boat’s arrival, the New South Wales State Government has declared a state event. When the boat reaches its final destination it will have sailed over 7,500 nautical miles, or about 13,000 kilometres over more than 120 days.

De Rothschild said the journey had succeeded in attracting a worldwide audience. Over a million people have followed the vessel’s progress via www.theplastiki.com, and over 7,000 people are following on Facebook. 

Said de Rothschild: “Every day we have thousands of people simultaneously responding online, it’s amazing to see this growing community.”

A lasting legacy of the Plastiki will be its capacity to shift public thinking and perception from plastic as the enemy to plastic becoming part of the solution. To solve the plastic pollution and waste issues at large will require a re-think of how we currently use, reuse and ultimately dispose of plastics and waste products.

According to Andrew Sukawaty, Chairman and CEO of Inmarsat, the FleetBroadband services helped Plastiki capture the imagination of the general public.

Said Sukawaty: “Plastiki has created an increasingly large and loyal following around the globe. We’re delighted that our flagship service, FleetBroadband, can help effect change. As David so rightly says, the impact of our plastic waste is undeniable.”

Commenting on the global reach of this vital environmental message, de Rothschild said:  “One of the founding principles of the Plastiki Expedition was to create a global conversation around the issues and the solutions needed in order to beat waste, especially the plastic pollution that plagues our oceans. Without Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband service, unwavering commitment and vision to support our call to action, the Plastiki wouldn’t have been able to reach the global audience it has, and in turn create such an immense global voice of change.”

As well as reaching over six million viewers through a single interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show, regular video reports were transmitted from the boat for weekly TV and web reports on CNN International. De Rothschild conducted many phone interviews over FleetBroadband, including one with the website Smartplanet in which he said: “Because we have all this connectivity, it allows us to be ambitious with the messages we send and the kind of content we are posting.”

The high-quality voice and broadband data connectivity of Inmarsat’s maritime service, FleetBroadband, has guaranteed that Plastiki has been the most connected environmental messenger on today’s oceans. During the 120 day plus voyage FleetBroadband has provided essential 24/7 connectivity and sent high-definition television (HDTV) and rich multimedia content from Plastiki to the world’s media in a bid to reach the largest global audience with this environmental message.

The boat is completely self-contained in terms of its energy generation. A SAILOR FleetBroadband 500 (FB500) was supplied by solutions provider Satcom to send store-and-forward video from the boat back to the project website and to media. The video production equipment was supplied by Livewire Digital, airtime by Stratos Global and the Inmarsat C safety service by Thrane & Thrane.

The Plastiki Expedition has benefited from the 432kbps of standard IP connectivity, and up to 256kbps of guaranteed or ‘streaming’ IP data. 

In addition to creating a media event, it was, according to Plastiki skipper Jo Royle, hugely reassuring for the crew to know that with FleetBroadband they were never alone, and that their progress and news was reaching not only the media, sponsors and a global audience but also their own friends and families.

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Notes to Editors

Additional quotes

Skipper Jo Royle: “The expedition would have had a totally different meaning without the support of Inmarsat. Without it, there is no way we would have had so many hits to our website and built such an incredible community of people following us and engaging in live discussions about the health of our oceans and how we see a smarter future.”

Skipper Jo Royle: “The Sailor FB500 and Stratos as the air time service provider for the Plastiki expedition have been 100 per cent reliable. I have never experienced such clarity in ship-to-shore communications. Inmarsat technology has totally revolutionised my job as an ocean sailor skipper. We can now enjoy life at sea and remain connected with developments on shore. As technology across all aspects of professional life at sea continues to push boundaries, connectivity between ship and shore side teams is increasingly important.”

About Inmarsat

Inmarsat plc (LSE: ISAT) is the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services.  Since 1979, Inmarsat has been providing reliable voice and high-speed data communications to governments, enterprises and other organizations, with a range of services that can be used on land, at sea or in the air.  The company’s services are delivered through a global network of more than 400 distribution partners and service providers operating in 100 countries.  For the year ended 31 December 2009, Inmarsat plc had total revenue of US$1,038.1 million (2008: US$996.7 million) with an EBITDA of US$594.2 million (2008: US$531.2 million).  For more information, please visit www.inmarsat.com.

About Adventure Ecology / The Plastiki Expedition

Founded in 2005 by David de Rothschild, Adventure Ecology uses the magic and excitement of unique field missions to educate, entertain and raise awareness of environmental and social issues while driving innovative real world solutions. Adventure Ecology’s latest undertaking is The Plastiki Expedition: an approximately 11,000 nautical mile voyage from the United States to Australia which aims to showcase smart thinking by using waste as a valuable resource. David de Rothschild along with his crew including skipper, Jo Royle, and co-skipper, David Thomson, are currently sailing across the Pacific aboard a state-of-the-art, sixty-foot catamaran made from 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles and Seretex, an innovative, self-reinforcing PET material that is completely recyclable. Through this and other eco-conscious initiatives, Adventure Ecology’s long-term vision is to create a global, youth-based community of change-makers that learn, share, speak and, most importantly, act to address our global sustainability issues in order to promote a greater respect, connection and responsibility for our Planet, its environment, species and people.  Additional information is available at www.adventureecology.com | www.theplastiki.com.

Published July 16, 2010 – Business Times
Inmarsat’s fleet broadband service takes off

By JOYCE HOOI

SATELLITE communications firm Inmarsat says the maritime industry is going big on broadband.

In the past six months alone, Inmarsat has registered 5,000 terminal installations on the vessels of its maritime customers.

This takes the total number of installations to 10,000 since its Fleet Broadband service was introduced in 2007, said James Collett, senior director of Inmarsat’s maritime division.

Increasing demand for operational and crew data communication facilities on vessels at sea will continue to drive broadband connection usage, Mr Collett reckons.

‘70 per cent of communications traffic in the maritime sector today is data and 30 per cent is voice,’ he said. ‘10 years ago, it was the other way around.’

In 2009, the maritime sector accounted for US$357 million – or 52 per cent – of Inmarsat Global’s revenue.

Within the sector, data services revenue is more than double voice services revenue and growing at a phenomenal clip – a 10.8 per cent year-on-year increase.

While large merchant vessels increasingly use broadband services to keep channels of communication with onshore centres open, crew members use them to send e-mails, check Facebook accounts and read online versions of their favourite newspapers.

Even as data capacity improves, shipowners’ wish-lists have become longer. Live television feeds, video surveillance of vessels from shore and cargo monitoring are all being clamoured for.

While data usage on vessels has increased, the cost per unit of data has fallen dramatically.

Communication costs for the average merchant vessel currently account for less than one per cent of operating costs, according to Mr Collett.

The potential for growth is particularly exciting for Inmarsat, given the untapped nature of the maritime broadband market.

‘Less than 10 per cent of our maritime customers are on broadband and less than 5 per cent are really using it in a real broadband sense,’ Mr Collett said.

He estimates that about 50,000 ships have data requirements that are not being met, and that at least a third of them are in the Asian region.

‘We are looking to increase our presence in Singapore and are getting a dedicated maritime person as part of the team,’ he said. Singapore currently houses Inmarsat’s regional headquarters.

By Daniel Robinson
Jun 16, 2010

IsatPhone can be used at sea.

Inmarsat has launched a mobile phone with a difference. The IsatPhone Pro connects to the firm’s satellite communications network to enable users to keep in contact from almost anywhere in the world.

Available immediately through Inmarsat’s distribution partners, the IsatPhone Pro is promoted as a “game changer” in the specialist communications market, with prices expected to be as low as US$500…

Read the rest of the article on CRN

CommunicAsia 2010 has finally come to a close and it was a busy but interesting week for the Rice team. Despite the absence of some regular exhibitors, and some companies’ scaled-down presence, CommunicAsia 2010 still delivered its best.  Five of our clients were involved in the show this year – from the easy file-sharing enabled by iTwin to an interactive forum hosted by Emerson Network Power for telecom operators, our clients garnered the interest of potential customers, investors and the media.

Emerson Network Power hosted CommsConnect, an interactive forum that provides telecom operators with integrated solutions that focuses on the deployment of high-performance networks. It aims primarily to address the complexities of owning and maintaining telecom networks, and challenges related to cost and energy usage. There was a good turnout and a group media briefing was organised on Day 1.

Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES) a global leader in providing broadband satellite networks and services for large enterprises, governments, small businesses, and consumers, hosted its annual “Hughes Breakfast Seminar” with great success. This year’s event had the best turnout compared to other events that were organised in Singapore.

Inmarsat plc (LSE: ISAT), a veteran participant at the annual show launched its first global satellite handheld, the IsatPhone Pro. The launch garnered media’s interest from the UK, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and China. It was a great success for Inmarsat as they were ranked fifth among the top 10 hot gadgets premiered at the show this year.

iTwin made its CommunicAsia debut with the introduction of its remote data access device. The iTwin was one of the hottest gadgets displayed at the show this year. The product, targeted to the mass market, consists of two devices that can be plugged together which act as physical “keys” to enable two computers to share files over the Internet. Throughout the four days, iTwin’s demo attracted 2,000 visitors including bloggers, member of the press and consumers to its booth.

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) held a one-day seminar programme on Mobile Marketing and Advertising as part of the CommunicAsia Summit 2010. The seminar attracted a great many participants who were eager to hear from speakers from MMA-member organisations including AdMob, Unilever, Yahoo! Navteq Media, Motorola and Pudding Media who provided valuable insights into the industry. A joint media roundtable was also organised for MMA and Admob – the session explored the deeper perspectives and future trends of mobile marketing in Asia and U.S.

Overall it was an exciting and fruitful four days and as we look forward to the next CommunicAsia, the team has started making preparation for other upcoming events, including Mobile Asia Congress 2010 that will take place in Hong Kong in November.

From Anand Parthasarathy in Singapore

Satcom solutions leader Inmarsat, has launched its first global handheld satellite phone – the IsatPhone Pro — which will harness its own network to provide world-wide connectivity to any mobile or landbased telephone network.

With 8 hours of talk time, 100 hours of hot standby and tough environmental specifications, the IsatPhone also offers GPS location sensitivity – and the ability to tag this information to every call made…

Read the rest of the article on IndiaTech online