SEVSAT is an acronym for Ship Equip

VSAT A very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) is a two-way satellite ground station with a dish antenna that is smaller than 3.8 meters. The majority of VSAT antennas range from 75 cm to 1.2 m. Bit rates, in most cases, range from 4 kbit/s up to 1 ...

, a maritime satellite broadband system from the Ship Equip Group with its head office in Norway. Ship Equip is a subsidiary of Inmarsat, a mobile satellite services operator.

History

SEVSAT was developed from 2000–2003, and was initially based on

space segment The space segment of an artificial satellite system is one of its three operational components (the others being the user and ground segments). It comprises the satellite or satellite constellation and the uplink and downlink satellite links. The ...

allocations from

Eutelsat Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it is the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues. Eutelsat's satellit ...

and Stratos who had implemented the technology on some of their satellites. In 2004, Stratos closed down their maritime broadband division, and Ship Equip turned to the start-up space segment broker New Wave Broadband and satellite operator

Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly INTEL-SAT, INTELSAT, Intelsat) is a multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States. Originally formed as In ...

. These two companies had independently decided to implement technology on the 907 satellite that covered central and northern Europe, where customers of Ship Equip were primarily located. From 2004–2006, while focusing primarily on its local markets in the offshore oil, gas and fisheries segments, the number of SEVSAT customers increased rapidly to over 100 installed systems early in 2006, and 200 systems by mid-2007. The rate of growth during this period caught the attention of the media and in April 2006, the leading financial newspaper in Norway, ''

Dagens Næringsliv ''Dagens Næringsliv'' (Norwegian for "Today's Business"), commonly known as ''DN'', is a Norwegian newspaper specializing in business news. , it is the third-largest newspaper in Norway. Editor-in-chief is Janne Johannessen, who was appointed i ...

'', ran an article indicating that Ship Equip was challenging

Telenor Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwide, ...

, which at that time was the market leader in maritime VSAT. (Shortly after, Telenor Satellite Services was purchased and merged with France Telecom Mobile Satellite Communications (FTMSC) under the

Vizada Vizada is a worldwide satellite communications service provider which operates earth ground stations that connect satellite communications to terrestrial telecommunications and IP networks. Vizada provides both mobile and fixed satellite telecom ...

brand). The article initiated further press coverage from regional newspaper

Sunnmørsposten ''Sunnmørsposten'' () is a newspaper published by Polaris Media in Ålesund, Norway. History and profile In its early days, ''Sunnmørsposten'' competed with several other local newspapers, including ''Aalesunds Avis'' (1917–1957), '' Aalesu ...

and national newspaper

Finansavisen ''Finansavisen'' is a Norwegian language, Norwegian business newspaper published by Hegnar Media in Oslo, Norway. History and profile ''Finansavisen'' was first published on 1 October 1992 by Trygve Hegnar, who is also editor-in-chief. The paper ...

. In 2009, the Comsys group's annual VSAT report quoted Ship Equip as having a 14.3% share in the maritime

market. In 2011, Ship Equip was purchased by London-based Inmarsat for $159.5 million. According to Inmarsat, at the time of purchase, approximately 10% of vessels using Ku-band VSAT worldwide were using networks provided by Ship Equip.

Technology

SEVSAT includes above deck equipment (ADE) and below deck equipment (BDE). The ADE consists of the antenna which, except for some early deliveries, are SeaTel antennas. Two types of SEVSAT systems exist, C-band and

Ku-band The Ku band () is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies from 12 to 18 gigahertz (GHz). The symbol is short for "K-under" (originally german: Kurz-unten), because it is the lower part of the ori ...

, denoting the frequency range in which they are capable of receiving a satellite signal. The C-band antennas are generally large, from in dish diameter. The Ku-band antennas are smaller, from in dish diameter. The BDE most commonly consists of one electronic rack containing the following components: an

modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

, the SEVSAT global satellite switching unit, a DAC,

Cisco Routers Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...

, telephone adapters and a UPS{{Clarify, reason=What is UPS?, date=July 2017.

References

Telecommunications equipment Satellite Internet access