A $1 billion problem that needs solving
We are all familiar with phones & the connectivity it has given us. The analogue rotary phones were cabled, but the modern cell phones are wireless & allows us to do more, in fact much more than what the landline allowed.
It took over 130 years to get about 1.25 billion landline phones installed. However, by the end of 2019 in just about 12 years from its inception, it is estimated that there will be 5 billion smart phone subscriptions. It demonstrates the ‘power to scale’ with technology that is enabled by wireless connectivity.
We have the technology to go wireless anywhere on the planet, but perhaps the last remaining frontier is inside a ship. That is because of the effect of the Faraday cage, which does not allow wireless signals to pass through steel barriers - bulkheads & decks.
As a consequence, every single equipment, machinery, device & sensor needs to be connected on board by cables. This means,
- Installing or retrofitting equipment (depending on ship type & size) can take 1-4 weeks on average to pull cables across the length, breadth and height of a ship. There are cases of big complex ships where this has even taken over 3 months.
- On average (depending on ship type & size) the cost of cables and manpower for a retrofit installation is anywhere between $5,000 to $30,000 and it can be as high as $50,000 for a large complex ship.
If we consider the average cost of installation to be $10,000, then that adds up to ($10,000 x 100,000 vessels) $1 billion cost of installation that the industry has to bear for cabled connectivity.
If you think about what being wireless meant for the phone, it has allowed us some incredible innovation and inventions, with the ability to call being a very small part of what we use smartphones today. Goes without saying that wireless capability on board will give us the option to scale quickly and allow sensors, devices, equipment & machinery to be connected and communicate with each other under wireless IoT. This will then enable and speed up development of the next generation of digital services & solutions that we have perhaps not yet even conceived.
It is believed that going wireless will give us the possibility of disruption not just in technology, but also in how we do business today. New business models such as 'as a service' (aaS) business models could be explored in shipping, including connectivity aaS, data aaS, platform aaS, engines aaS, maintenance aaS, to power aaS, voyage aaS, vessel aaS, transportation aaS, etc.
If we can solve the problem of the Faraday cage, the benefits & savings are bound to be enormous:
- Installation time can potentially be reduced from weeks to hours
- Estimated cost may be reduced by up to 90%
Unlike what happened with phones, we certainly hope it won’t take a century to change from cabled connection to wireless connectivity on ships. If the on-board wireless connectivity problem is solved, it will perhaps take just under 5 years to turn the entire world’s maritime fleet into one that is digitally capable.
The questions is - who will solve this problem?
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VP Sales Middle East
5 年Fiber optical cables on the new vessel deliveries is a step forward. However it is not an easy task because of the vessels infrastructure. Maybe in the future it can happen through transmitters but still it is not easy.
Technopreneur; creator of "Power Potentials"; advocate for renewable energy and sustainability; author of "Power of Ideas"; spearheaded social initiative energy-related "Love One Another" to aid the impoverished.
5 年I dont know if you heard about startup company in Singapore have developed technology to transmit power to sensors wireless until 55 meter.. Would that help partially your problem .. You know Melvin some people in our world today enjoy talking about the problem ..when solution comes from no where they lose focus and simply runaway.. I m sure you are qualified manager can face and go the extra mile to see your problem solved and provide your clients with genius solution increase your company. Value
Partner, BLUE-C - Maritime & Offshore PR
5 年Definitely a new start-up ScanReach.com is well on its way to solving this..
I enjoyed reading this and the replies. Tom H. McDonald?comments however, were the only one's suggesting there's a specific business use case to account for ahead of the consideration of potential solutions and costs described in the post above. Unfortunately, cargo ships are no different than other 'infrastructure' elements like utilities, oil and gas, mining, etc that are purpose built to last multiple decades and were not designed with IoT or other such use cases in mind.? My suggestion would be to look to those other industries for the types of use cases warrant making such modifications to existing equipment and how newer solutions coming on line can have those built in.? One last comment re the nature of the communications problem.....look at any vehicle and you have similar challenges with wiring complexity and assuring communications within the operating environment and the resulting dependence on wired communications. The automotive market has worked long and hard to reduce the weight, cost, and complexity of their internal operating networks. Might be some lessons to learn there as well.
Global Sales Manager @ Telefonica | Technology Services
5 年The only thing that varies more than the commodities being shipped in containers are the ports of call and maritime assets; standard 20’, 40’, 45’ containers to “hi-cubes” and “reefer” / climate controlled containers. The first question I would ask is; what cargo type needs to be monitored? High-value cargo, likely yes - perishables? medical supplies? What about destinations with higher risks of pilferage? Probably a good idea as well. Enabling a limited number of assets (climate controlled, reefer containers, etc...) that are carrying these types of cargo would/should be the first step. Cold-chain solutions (data loggers) in reefer containers are pretty common, and enabling on-water connectivity (cellular access / backhaul) is becoming more cost-effective.... companies like Eutelsat launching ELO satellites for narrowband communications are making “on-water IoT” a cost-effective reality. The market may not be ready for us to solve the Faraday Cage problem for a fleet of vessels with 1000 to 18,000 TEU capacity. But likely, it is ready for us to solve it for assets that carry high-value, perishables and cargo destined for destinations with higher than normal pilferage incidents.