Royal Wagenborg renews contract with Castor Marine for long-term and expanded fleet connectivity
Royal Wagenborg has renewed and extended Castor Marine’s Global Ku VSAT connection for multiple years, according to the company's release. This guarantees onboard internet connectivity, readying their fleet for future safe and efficient journeys.
Since 1898 the Dutch family-owned shipping company has been crossing the oceans, developing to a modern environment-friendly fleet operator with about 200 vessels. Besides the extension of 52 Global Ku VSAT contracts, Castor Marine will equip an additional 15 Wagenborg vessels, currently on 4G, with VSAT.
For more than eight years the company has provided VSAT, Iridium, Inmarsat FBB, and IT services to the Wagenborg fleet.
To support Wagenborg’s strategy of smart shipping and being able to operate the global fleet more efficient and environmentally friendly, the bandwidth for the 52 vessels has been increased. This will also improve the onboard crew welfare system, as provided by Castor Marine for several years. VSAT for European trading vessels Wagenborg vessels trading in Europe will be equipped with a ‘Telenor Ka system based on iDirect and Intellian v60 Ka VSAT hardware’. These vessels currently use a 4G system and an L-band back-up system when sailing outside 4G coverage.
To improve the crew welfare and support smart vessel operations 24/7 anywhere at sea, these vessels will also be provided with VSAT connections. The first installation was done in October 2021 and over 15 vessels will follow shortly.
Castor Marine supports and manages Wagenborg’s SD-WAN routers centrally, which is ideal for monitoring, performing changes and software upgrades. In the SD-WAN setup for Wagenborg Shipping, all the business applications on the fleet are directly connected to Wagenborg’s headquarters in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. The crew welfare network operates separate from the business network and is directly connected to the public internet, after passing Castor Marine’s content filters and firewalls.
About Castor Marine
Castor Marine is a leading satellite service provider and teleport operator, providing a suite of Global Connectivity Services which are seamlessly integrated and managed through its online portal. These include Global VSAT Ku- band services based on a fully owned and operated global Ku-band network, in addition to L-band and 4G LTE services. Castor Marine’s IT services include the design, implementation, and support of IT systems onboard, and SD-WAN solutions to connect the fleet to the internet. Castor Marine operates worldwide and offers installation, integration and real-time monitoring of Internet traffic, reliable connectivity solutions and all related IT systems. To guarantee global coverage, Castor owns and operates several teleports and a fibre network. For all systems and equipment, Castor offers a broad range of services, including 24/7 support, maintenance, spare parts, and training. Services include the design, implementation, and support of IT systems onboard and SD- WAN fleet connectivity solutions. The company’s professionals are fully certified to work onboard worldwide.
About Royal Wagenborg
Founded in 1898, Royal Wagenborg is an international maritime logistics conglomerate. The family owned and managed company offers a variety of sustainable maritime logistics services, being a total solution provider with regard to dry cargo shipping, offshore services, towage services, agency services, maritime management services, warehousing and transshipment, crane rental and special and heavy transport. Wagenborg has built a strong global commercial network with offices in Sweden, Finland, Greece, Spain, Canada, Russia, the Philippines, and China. Overall, they are managed out of the Dutch Delfzijl headquarters.