Fleet Broadband is the latest from Inmarsat, combining simultaneous voice and Internet access in the same terminal. The FB250 is capable of data rates up to 280Kbps and the FB500 up to 432kbps.
The FB250 terminal is housed in a 12" radome and can easily be mounted on a mizzen mast bracket or on a pole on the transom.
It can be quite costly for a cruiser budget. The terminal costs about $12,000 and then voice calls are about $1.50 per minute, and data throughput is billed at about $16/MB.
The data connection is "always on" and you are only billed for the bits, or megabits that you use.
I believe there is also a monthly access charge of about $100.
If you are a really heavy data user (and extremely wealthy too) you can get the data rate cost down by purchasing bulk plans in the region of $3,300 worth of minutes per month with a 12 month minimum, but I think this is the wrong audience for that.
Right now, in July 2008 the service only covers the Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions, but the Pacific will soon be included.
FB250
Voice - 4 kbit/s or 3,1 kHz Audio
Fax - Group3 fax via 3,1 kHz Audio
SMS - Standard 3G up to 160 characters
Data Standard IP - up to 284 kbit/s
Streaming IP 32, 64, 128 kbit/s
Antenna - diametre from 25 cm, weight approx 5 kg
FB500
Voice - 4 kbit/s or 3,1 kHz Audio
Fax - Group3 fax via 3,1 kHz Audio
SMS - Standard 3G up to 160 characters
Data Standard IP - up to 432 kbit/s
Streaming IP 32, 64, 128 256 kbit/s
ISDN 64 kbit/s
Antenna - diametre from 57 cm, weight approx 18 kg
Howard [ Just Imagine ] 01-Aug-2008