Survey has showed that 70% of seafarers want internet and are willing to pay for it
Seafarers expecting easier access tothe internetvia crew welfare provisions under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) may be disappointed, a global satellite broadband conference has heard.
Mark Woodhead, managing director of Headland Media, told the Global VSAT Forum (GVF) conference in London, that while MLC put crew welfare, ‘at front and centre’ by requiring that voice and data communications, where it is available, to be offered to all crew at a reasonable price, it stopped short of making internet access free.
‘But every ship I have spoken to has had a gap analysis done about where they stand on crew welfare, and they know it is on the agenda, so it opens up a dialogue which might be useful,’ said Mr Woodhead.
Good data communication was not confined to social media access, he added. Crew work and rest was also a serious issue that needed good systems to record it. While pay might be top of the agenda for most seafarers, the best quality seafarers would work for companies offering the best working conditions, while managers would also demand the tools to do their jobs,maintained Mr Woodhead.
The conference heardofan anticipatedchanging IT seascape for ship operators:theposible influence of mobile technology on satellite networks for the cruise industry,smaller antenna for superyachts, and the potentential nanotechnology impacts on the future seafaring. But the benefits to seafarers seemed under the radar of satellite operators.
Roger Adamson, chief executive of Stark Moore Macmillan, said its survey of nearly 1000 Filipino seafarers commissioned by Astrium last year, and published in February 2013, showed seafarers wanted internet access, and that 70 per cent of them were willing to pay for it. But he added that the need for access to social media was ‘highly generational among seafarers.’ Those under 25 for example seemed ‘barely to be interested’ in Facebook anymore.
The findings a recent Cisco survey of 18-30 year olds on smartphones which showed 55% couldn’t live without the internet had relevance to all employers, including shipping owners,as it showed that ‘the new workplace currency was not just about salary,’ commented Mr Adamson.
Source: Nautilus International