Anglo-Eastern Ship Management, a leading global provider of ship management services with more than 40 years of experience supporting shipowners worldwide, has chosen Inmarsat, the world leader in global, mobile satellite communications, to connect its crew. Centred on the pillars of digitalisation, decarbonisation, and crew welfare, Anglo-Eastern’s operations rely on robust connectivity and a forward-thinking approach. To meet the fast-evolving requirements of modern shipping, the company uses Fleet Xpress services from Inmarsat.
In 2019, Anglo-Eastern became one of the first companies to sign up for Inmarsat’s award-winning crew internet solution, Fleet Hotspot, providing its seafarers with reliable, high-speed connectivity and the freedom to use their devices on board. The company doubled the free internet allowance for its crew in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on crew welfare. In addition, every year on the Day of the Seafarer and festive occasions, Anglo-Eastern increases crew internet allowance.
While the majority of land-based professionals might take workplace Wi-Fi for granted, high-quality internet has traditionally been hard to come by at sea. Such is the impact of Fleet Hotspot on the maritime industry that it recently won the Mission to Seafarers Innovation Award for its “outstanding contribution to seafarer welfare”. As an advocate for the well-being of maritime personnel, the Mission to Seafarers is also a strong proponent of onboard connectivity, and its 2021 Seafarers Happiness Index identifies the amenity as critical to crew welfare.
Encouragingly, the shipping industry has made significant progress in this area in recent times. In Inmarsat’s 2022 Seafarers in the Digital Age report, 78% of the shipowners surveyed said they had installed crew internet in the last five years. Meanwhile, another Inmarsat study published this year highlighted a 149% growth in data consumption for crew welfare and connectivity purposes from June 2021 to June 2022. As regards Fleet Hotspot specifically, uptake and usage of the solution are experiencing rapid growth – and with newly introduced amendments to the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 making crew connectivity a regulatory requirement, these trends look set to continue.