Stena Line Renews Agreement with MCP

Maritime Communications Partner (MCP) announced the renewal of a major four-year management contract with the Stena Line for the deployment of maritime communications solutions onboard 16 passenger ferry vessels including two new super ferries.

Services covered by the contract, which lasts until 2013, include GSM and GPRS. Stena Line also confirms future partnering with MCP to streamline dedicated wireless solutions to ship staff and unique SMS-driven marketing solutions to passengers. "This contract maintains and builds a positive environment for our customers. Today, 95% of our GSM business comes from Voice and SMS, but we are seeing an increased volume of data traffic. Whether Smart phones or computers, passengers utilize wireless channels to check calendars, synchronize emails and tasks," says Hans Bjorkborg, managing director, Stena Line IT Services AB.

Every year over 16 million passengers travel with Stena Line on its Scandinavian, North Sea and Irish Sea routes. The company's route network consists of 18 strategically located ferry routes around Ireland, Britain, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Poland and Germany. Routes are serviced by fast ferries, traditional combi-ferries, RoPax-ferries for freight and passengers and pure cargo ships. Last year, the company carried over three million passengers on its Irish Sea routes alone and for the 16th time, won the prestigious Northern Ireland Travel News 'Best Ferry Company' title.

"Our market reputation is important and we want to provide consistent and modern wireless services. MCP is more than just a technical partner, they have very good engineers and in the past two years have become a very good business partner. The service is very reliable," states Bjorkborg.

Stena Line is eyeing other MCP services and hopes to apply several new MCP solutions in the near future.

"We are arranging workshops to look at PinPoint Messaging. It is likely that we will run a series of pilot projects with MCP to adapt these applications to our business," adds Bjorkborg. According to Bjorkborg, passengers must have a positive sailing experience and this means uninterrupted communication with mainland connections.

Stena Lines' two 1200 passenger RoPax super ferries, to join the Harwich to the Hook of Holland route in 2010, are included in the agreement.

"The agreement also includes provisioning GSM services onboard our two new super ferries. MCP combines technology and service solutions with a fully recognized international operatorship, handling all legal and regulatory challenges. Their wireless services and solutions and credibility enhance our competitiveness," says Bjorkborg.

Today's passengers expect to be able to walk onboard a Stena ship, communicating all the way from departure through to arrival. Providing the ability to do so is the definition of a value added service to the passengers and, also the crew. PinPoint Messaging improves services provided directly to passengers and gives cruise operators real time passenger data for targeted marketing, sales and information purposes.

(www.stenaline.com)