Inmarsat Provides Pacific Northwest, Bering Sea Coverage for Dunlap

For Dunlap, the Dutch Harbor and Pacific Coast routes in Alaskan waters have traditionally been challenging and its existing service did not offer the reliability required to transmit important operating and safety reports, communicate back to shore or make critical inter-fleet voice calls, according to Inmarsat. Dunlap needed a service that could accommodate its coastal requirements and support its longer open water routes providing a reliable, guaranteed connection.

After an initial consultation with Network Innovations, the team were able to quickly assess Dunlap’s requirements and present Inmarsat’s Fleet One Service with Cobham’s Fleet One hardware. With Fleet One, regional vessel operators can stay connected without having to worry about cellular coverage or network roaming charges. Based on Inmarsat’s I-4 commercial L-band satellite network, Fleet One gives vessel managers and owners the assurance they can stay connected while at sea with 99.9 percent network availability, Inmarsat said.

Fleet One provides a diverse range of plans and options to fit a variety of needs. Dunlap selected the Pacific Northwest Regional Plan as a cost-effective option that would allow the tug fleets to talk vessel-to-vessel for up to 30-minutes for free plus the ability to have coverage in the open sea. 

Utilizing Fleet One, Dunlap has eliminated the patchy coverage on all of its operating routes from Hawaii to the Aleutian Islands. Now its vessels can reliably access full-color weather images, navigational charts and routing information, as well as sending/receiving reports, browsing the web, send/receive emails, text and talk close to shore and at sea. With Inmarsat’s free 505 Emergency Calling service included, Fleet One provides an additional level of safety for its crew.  

“Since we have started using Fleet One, our tugs are able to travel to remote areas without interruptions, our monthly bills have been cut in half, dropped calls and missing reports don’t happen anymore,” said Jack Sanford, Inside Operations Manager, Dunlap Towing Company.   

“Because of our strong partner relationships in the North West Pacific region, my local dealer was able to connect Network Innovations to Dunlap allowing us to provide a perfect solution that not only supports their business today, but well into the future” said Matt George, Vice President Global Maritime Sales, Network Innovations. “Fleet One and the Pacific Northwest Plan work together allowing companies like Dunlap to expand their businesses, routes, and services knowing their communication technologies are supported by strong, experienced partners. The support teams are great! They respond quickly via phone or email.  It is nice to know that at anytime, we can pick up the phone and call the tugs no matter where they are and the crews can do the same.”