Maritime communication services launched by Minister RS Prasad at Mumbai

Nelco, India's leading VSAT solutions provider is the first Indian company that will now provide quality broadband services to the maritime sector.

Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad has launched the maritime communication services at Mumbai today. He said that Maritime Connectivity will enable high-end support to those in the sea by providing access to Voice, Data and Video services while traveling on sailing vessels, cruise liners, ships in India, using satellite technology.

Nelco, India's leading VSAT solutions provider is the first Indian company that will now provide quality broadband services to the maritime sector. Nelco through global partnerships, infrastructure including transponder capacity on the satellite of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) and a comprehensive service portfolio will help Energy, Cargo, and Cruise vessels by enhancing operational efficiency, improving crew welfare and enabling customer services. The IFMC license has not only enabled connectivity for onboard users on ships but also brings operational efficiencies for shipping companies which were less evolved until now.

In December 2018, the Government of India announced the licenses for In-flight and Maritime Communications (IFMC) that allows voice and internet services while flying over the Indian skies and sailing in Indian waters, both for international and Indian aircraft and vessels. The IFMC license is a key initiative of the Telecom Ministry, a move to liberalize satellite communication services in India.

Speaking on this occasion, Mr. P J Nath, MD, and CEO of NELCO said that they will also be offering a bouquet of digital services to cater to the needs of the various types of maritime vessels.

Shri Prasad also launched a web portal for reporting of stolen mobiles for tracing purposes in the august presence of MoS, Communications Shri Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre.

International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) is supposed to be a unique identity of a mobile phone device. Generally, a phone with one/two slots of SIM card is programmed with one/two IMEI number as the case may be. IMEI number being programmable, some miscreants do reprogram the IMEI number, which results in the cloning of IMEI causing multiple phone devices with same IMEI number. As on date, there are many cases of cloned/duplicated IMEI handsets in the network.

If such IMEI is blocked, a large number of mobile phones will get blocked being handsets with the same IMEI causing inconvenience to many genuine customers. Thus, there is a need to eliminate duplicate/fake IMEI mobile phones from the network.

Accordingly, a project called Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) system has been undertaken by the DoT for addressing security, theft and other concerns including reprogramming of mobile handsets.

The major objectives of the project include the following: 

Blocking of lost/stolen mobile phones across mobile networks thus discouraging theft of mobile phones

Facilitate in tracing of such reported lost/stolen mobile phones

Prevention of mobile devices with duplicate and fake IMEIs in the network

Curtail the use of counterfeit mobile devices

Reduced health risks to the users with the control of the use of counterfeit mobile phones

Improved QoS and reduced call drops with a reduction in the use of counterfeit mobile devices

(With Inputs from PIB)