Telenor Maritime has signed a five-year partnership contract with Polferries during this year’s SMM event. The contract secures Telenor Maritime a solid position in the European ferry market, according to a press release

Telenor Maritime will deliver passenger services (wi-fi and mobile), as well as connectivity between ship and shore, to all five of Polferries’ vessels in operation.

“The ferries are an important link between Sweden and Poland, and carry large amounts of cargo and passengers between the two countries. Their ambition is to optimize and improve passenger experience by allowing passengers to use their phones, tablets and laptops on board – both for business and leisure purposes,” said Roger Vimme, Sales Director Ferry, at Telenor Maritime.

Although Telenor Maritime does not set passenger retail prices for maritime roaming, Lars Erik Lunøe, CEO of Telenor Maritime, believes that the prices will decrease as the usage goes up.

“We see a substantial increase in data traffic. Compared to pre-pandemic 2019, the data usage has increased by 50%. People are used to having uninterrupted access to the internet, no matter where they are. The need for larger volumes of data at a lower price will increase by roughly 20% each year going forward, and we plan to increase the download speed from 450 MB/s to 1 GB in four years,” added Lars Erik Lunøe, CEO at Telenor Maritime.

The 4G mobile service onboard Polferries will be upgraded to 5G at a later date. However, even though internet speed at sea is still largely dependent on satellites, Telenor Maritime said it is researching and testing ways to implement new technology to meet the demand of future passengers. LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites and 5G are promising technologies that will be able to mitigate challenges with latency and capacity that “ordinary” geo-stationary satellites have today.

Telenor Maritime will also offer affordable wi-fi packages onboard all Polferries’ ships. With wi-fi, passengers can surf the internet at a predictable, pre-paid price. Packages are purchased using an onboard portal on the passengers’ personal devices.