The crews of today’s maritime fleets are made up of a diverse group of nationalities and work longer shifts with significantly quicker turnarounds in ports. Since the typical individual uses their smartphone 2,617 times each day, being in a remote location without a way to contact loved ones can be detrimental to a seafarer’s morale.
As crews and passengers age, this is especially crucial because millennials were raised in the digital era and have come to expect constant 24/7 connectivity. A good internet service will enable users to access news services in their own language, internet banking, instant messaging, and a variety of sports and entertainment alternatives while using their own devices in the privacy of their cabins.
Telenor Maritime is a truly global connectivity provider at sea. Telenor Maritime is a partner for the cruise, ferry and oil and gas industries and is a major contributor to the digitalization of the commercial shipping fleet.
Since 2004, Telenor Maritime has provided the greatest mobile experience at sea, connecting both crew and passengers to what matters most. They continuously set the bar when it comes to creating secure communications for their clients and deploying innovative connectivity technology.
For passengers and staff members to use their devices on board in a similar way to how they would on land, Telenor Maritime offers an end-to-end connection.
Idea to Inception
Four engineers met twenty years ago and decided that people should be able to use their phones and stay connected just like they can on land while working and traveling on ships. They devised a method for establishing mobile coverage on board ships via satellite connectivity. In 2002, Telenor Maritime became the first international company to provide mobile coverage on cruise ships. Since then, technology has grown from the earliest 2G solutions to the most cutting-edge standards currently used at sea. Telenor Maritime, which began as a maritime mobile operator, is now a full-service, end-to-end connection provider with solutions for passengers and crew, IoT devices, and the ships’ IT and OT networks.
Lars Erik Lunøe
With more than 15 years of experience in multiple top-level positions in the maritime industry, Lars Erik was appointed CEO of Telenor Maritime in 2019. His schooling comprises financial higher education from the Norwegian Business School and the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) (BI). Lars Erik brings Telenor Maritime a wealth of technical and sector-specific knowledge and insight that he has gained from previous positions with top global companies like Wilhelmsen and Survitec.
Lars has a background in the military, having spent a significant amount of time serving as an officer in the Navy and the Air Force. He has held sales and managerial positions for ship equipment suppliers (OEMs), primarily in the waste management and fire safety sectors. He didn’t know much about telecommunications prior to joining Telenor Maritime, but he has extensive maritime domain competence, and he relies on the support of the company’s technical experts and engineers for the telecom part.
Lars holds several positions as a board member and chairman in various companies and clusters. Since joining Telenor Maritime, Lars has had a special focus on digitalization to create new, sustainable business opportunities for our customers and partners worldwide.
Helping Sailors to Always Connect
Telenor Maritime’s main products are still connectivity, mobile, and wi-fi services, where the team serves its customers wherever in the world they are sailing. The important components of today’s cruise experiences are passenger connectivity and digital passenger services.
The digitalization of labor processes and unmanned operations has been made possible by Telenor Maritime’s recent diversification of its portfolio and involvement in numerous other industries, including vessel operations and oil and gas sites.
But more crucially, Telenor Maritime is making significant investments in digitalization, one of the key forces behind the maritime sector’s transition to a more sustainable model. The need for connectivity and digital interaction is exploding, and the team is there as an independent partner to safely assist ship owners and operators in complying with regulations, to ensure environmentally safe operations, and to save costs. Telenor Maritime’s team’s purpose is to connect its business partners to what matters most by enabling the digital shift at sea.
Introducing a Unified Hosting Service™
Digitalization immediately affected the maritime sector, making it difficult and important to gather operating data. Manual data gathering produced data of dubious quality that fell short of conforming to the new rules and standards. As a result, numerous diverse parties have created systems to gather, transmit, store, and analyze data, each in their own silo and frequently on land.
The Platform as a Service (PaaS) adapts to new standards and new methods of data collection and transmission as technology develops and demand increases. In the future, Telenor Maritime believes that the Unified Hosting Service™ will be the on-board hub of operational data and the center of digitalization efforts for ship owners and OEMs alike.
Stabilizing During the Crisis
The greatest problem facing the current generation is climate change, and Telenor Maritime is working to increase standards throughout its supply chains and partner organizations. Finding affordable and energy-saving solutions for its operations is a top priority for Telenor Maritime. Telenor Maritime will increase its efforts and look for fresh approaches to further lower the carbon footprint of the business.
Additionally, Telenor Maritime believes that its services will help its partners and clients achieve their goals of lowering their carbon footprint. In the maritime industry, digitalization will account for roughly 20 % of the way towards achieving IMO requirements and reaching the UN’s sustainability goals. The company states, “Our core connectivity services ensure that digitalization at sea is possible, while our new solutions for on-board data collection and governance speed up the process.”
Focusing on the Present to Transform Tomorrow
In telecommunications, one never knows what the world will look like tomorrow. How will technology evolve, and how do we keep up? What solutions will be sustainable and profitable in the years to come? And when it comes to maritime digitalization, what will most likely become the standard in the market? Being around for 20 years now, Telenor Maritime has nurtured teams of experts from various technology fields. It has established relationships with partners, including classification societies and regulators. And most importantly, the team listens to its customers and evolves with them. It states, “Our experience is our opportunity: we want to guide our customers to solve their challenges.”
Future Aspiration
The industry Telenor Maritime is working in is a greenfield area: it’s never straightforward to “marinize” familiar technology and solutions from the landside. There are so many opportunities for newcomers in the market, especially with the “new” focus on digitalization and optimization. Good ideas and great solutions are welcomed. The team says, “Keep in mind that the industry is still very conservative, and it can be difficult to persuade your customers to be first movers or to be one yourself. Stick to your idea, believe in it, and be patient. And always remember, it is the value that you create for your customer that counts.”
Telenor Maritime has set an ambition to be the ultimate connectivity service provider in the market by 2025 and to ensure it will be able to meet the climate target set for 2050.
The company is already there with some customers, operating as a strategic partner for their evolution. It aims to gain such a position with many more of its customers. It states, “We are well-established in the cruise and ferry segments and are now working on expanding our services to all segments of the maritime industry. The future is truly exciting, and we hope to stand alongside our customers and partners in the green shift, helping them to reach their sustainability goals.”
Clients Review
Class-leading digital experiences require increased bandwidth and secure connectivity, delivered safely and redundantly. To achieve this, we depend on working with the best. We believe Telenor Maritime will be a good partner for years to come with the ambitions the company has for developing new technology and solutions, which is very well aligned with Color Line’s goals.
– Are Paulsrud, CTO at Color Line
Telenor Maritime’s agile approach to connectivity is central to our choice of connectivity provider, especially after COVID forced us to be extremely cost-conscious while passengers’ demand for better services keeps growing.
– Luc Szczypa, Sales Director at La Méridionale
At Anek Lines, we put our passengers first, their satisfaction and loyalty are key to our business. All our services, from our essential back-office applications to the wi-fi network on board, are reliant on high-speed, 24/7 connectivity. A strategic connectivity partner must be highly dependable and at the forefront of technology for the maritime industry. We believe this is true of Telenor Maritime.
– Marinos Nomikos IT Director at Anek Lines
