New speeds for VOIP on Fleetbroadband

Two new Streaming IP rates are now being offered on Inmarsat's FleetBroadband. The new streaming rates - at 8kbps and 16kbps - are designed to support users who want to make multiple and simultaneous voice over IP (VoIP) phone calls through a FleetBroadband FB500 or FB250 terminal.

These Streaming IP connections are also capable of supporting the onboard GSM picocell technology that enables crew to use their own mobile cellular phones to make calls via the Inmarsat network. In future this is also expected to include access to personal mobile applications offered by GPRS and 3G services.

Until now, FleetBroadband customers have mainly used the Standard IP service, which offers an always-on data connection for applications such as email and web browsing.
The maximum speed offered is 432kbps, but this bandwidth may be shared with other users of the network in the same geographical area. Data rates may therefore vary.
With Streaming IP, customers can select a dedicated IP data connection offering consistent and assured data rates of 256, 128, 64 or 32kbps - as well as the new 16 and 8kbps channels. Streaming IP connections are charged on a time basis, unlike Standard IP, which is charged by the volume of data sent and received.

"Streaming IP can be used for a wide range of applications. Formerly, the lowest Streaming IP rate available over FleetBroadband FB500 and FB250 was 32kbps. While much lower than the data rates required for audio and video streaming, this was still far higher than needed for a good-quality voice call," explained Inmarsat solutions manager Manoj Mohindra.
"The introduction of the 8 and 16kbps rates makes it possible to manage the amount of bandwidth allocated to VoIP calls more efficiently and cost-effectively.
"VoIP operates by encoding the user's voice into data at particular bit rates, depending on the codec being used. Skype, the popular VoIP application, offers good quality voice connection, but using FleetBroadband Standard IP there is no control over the bandwidth it utilises, and hence the amount of chargeable data sent over the satellite.

Inmarsat therefore recommends the use of Streaming IP for VoIP applications such as Skype.

Source: Inmarsat