30 Years of Inmarsat C

30 years of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) service

Today, we mark 30 years of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) service, Inmarsat C.

Inmarsat C delivers 99.9% reliability to seafarers and Marlink is currently responsible for almost half of the global traffic on Inmarsat C, which forms the basis of vital maritime safety and vessel tracking and positioning systems.

In recent years, Marlink’s Inmarsat C traffic has shown continual growth, driven by our long-term knowledge, experience and solid partnerships, as well as the vital and continuous development of infrastructure to provide the highest Quality of Service (QoS), benefiting the safety of seafarers.

We manage the Inmarsat C traffic of the biggest service providers in the world, including Pole Star Global, CLS and SOREMAR, among others. As the preferred Land Earth Station Operator for 1/3 of all Inmarsat C users, we continue to create new Vessel Monitoring Service (VMS) business, in countries such as Tunisia, with services deployed on around 900 vessels.

The Marlink team has unrivalled knowledge and technical experience with Inmarsat C, resulting from the involvement of a dedicated group of technicians and engineers at both Aussaguel and Eik. This anniversary is a chance for us to thank the team for their hard work and achievements – our gratitude goes out to you all!

About Inmarsat C

Used for distress and safety communications as well as fleet tracking, Inmarsat C and Mini C enable you to send & receive data messages of up to 32 Kilobytes.

Since 2006, Marlink’s Inmarsat C traffic has grown to be 12 times larger. This significant and continual growth is driven by our long-term knowledge, experience and solid partnerships on Inmarsat C, as well as the vital and continuous development of infrastructure to provide the highest Quality of Service (QoS), benefiting the safety of seafarers.

Key benefits

• Complete reliability: reliable access to vital information, such as position reporting, data monitoring, messaging, and distress calling
• Safe at sea: compliant with Global Maritime Distress & Safety System (GMDSS)
• Compact: light, compact equipment
• Single unit: transceiver and antenna in a single unit (Mini C: Sailor terminal only)
• Cost efficient: IP Front End Processor (IP-FEP) compatible for enhanced cost-efficiency and direct access to Inmarsat Land Earth Station
• Better reporting: enhanced Pre-Assigned Data Report (EPADR) compliancy to increase reliability and efficiency of the transfer of the data and position reports