MOL signs up for Elon Musk’s Starlink

MOL signs up for Elon Musk’s Starlink
Sam Chambers December 12, 2022 https://splash247.com/mol-signs-up-for-elon-musks-starlink/

Shipping’s satellite communications shake-up is now in full swing with Elon Musk disrupting the existing dominant players.

Japan’s largest shipowner in dwt terms, Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) has announced it will start trial use of the Starlink service offered by Musk’s SpaceX company.

Musk started marketing Starlink to maritime customers this summer with cruise line Royal Caribbean signing up as the first major customer in a fleet-wide deal. Norwegian Cruise Line has also installed the new satellites on some of its ships.

MOL will work with Marlink for this trial of Musk’s technology with the Japanese shipping giant noting in a a release today: “Starlink’s constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) enable much lower latency and higher-capacity communications than traditional satellites, and Marlink offers the services for maritime application with established satellite communication and Starlink.”

MOL said the the new satellite technology could enhance operating safety through various technological methods of ship-shore communications and dramatically improve onboard life for seafarers with high-speed communication.

The MOL news will be watched closely in London, where the current dominant maritime sat comms provider Inmarsat is based.

“There’s a changing environment,” Ben Palmer, the president of Inmarsat Maritime, conceded in an interview with Splash earlier this year. “There’s new competition, disruptive new entrants and the the nature of customer demand is changing too,” Palmer said.