Nowhere Networks, a Scandinavian company which develops broadband solutions for the maritime industry, has developed a radio-link technology system to provide passenger ships with high speed internet across busy passenger shipping routes and plans to turn the Baltic into the world’s first broadband sea.

Instead of satellite communications, passengers and crew on cruise ships and ferries in the Baltic Sea can use radio technology for broadband connectivity.

In a region which has around 15 million passengers per year, the radio-link network across the region will be an alternative to Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) satellite communications and standard coastal 4G communications. One of the big advantages of the radio-link network technology for passengers is low latency communications with capacity up to 100 times higher than that of satellite links.

Having trialled the technology for around 12 months with shipping company Rederi AB Eckerö between Grisslehamn, Sweden, and Mariehamn, Finland, Nowhere Networks has taken the decision to expand the network and coverage now includes Stockholm, Sweden, and from Visby in Gotland to Helsinki, Finland, and Tallinn, Estonia.

Chief executive Asbjörn Frydenlund suggests that at the current rate of expansion, by the end of 2020, Nowhere Networks will have digitalised the entire Baltic Sea, fully connecting passengers and ships with the same stability and at the same speed and as on the mainland, enabling them to manage social media, surf the internet and work.

Nowhere Networks uses highly positioned heavy-duty antennas on land and on ships to achieve connectivity at high capacity and over long distances. By combining the onshore antennas with cloud-based software that constantly monitors and adjusts broadband speeds, and ship-based antennas – the same technology mobile operators use to link their mobile masts – the best possible internet connection is maintained.