Egatel is integrated in the area of Services and Technology of COMSA Corporation.

Technology developed to improve security and communication at sea

SPAIN
Tuesday, September 18, 2018, 00:30 (GMT + 9)

The company Egatel, associated with Cellnex Telecom, developed novel technology to modernize the communication system of the fishing fleet and thus improve the safety of its crew.

Francisco Valdés, director of technological innovation, explains that "the system would serve two purposes: on the one hand, to increase the safety of the Galician fishing fleet, and on the other, to control the working conditions of the sailors, monitoring the fishing gear." Regarding the latter, he added that the system would send control information about what type of gear and how many is being used by each boat. In addition, the crew members would have vests or wristbands that, at the time when there is a dangerous situation, for example a man overboard, they would send a signal to the ship's command post.

The warning would be transmitted immediately to the control posts, explains Valdés, activating a response. "At the moment in which this signal is received, a message is sent to an unmanned aircraft so that it takes off and is positioned in the position of the vessel, beginning to send real-time images of what is happening on the ship," says the expert, who considers that "it is a very complete system whose central part is this novel communication system, which in the future would be extended with the satellite."

In this sense Valdez stated that "if we manage to win this tender we would put Galicia on the map, because it would be the first region in the world to deploy a maritime communications network with this technology."

The project they have presented contemplates that, within 18 months, the two companies involved will be able to launch a test, on a small scale, in a Galician river, so that the Administration can see that the system works and once this is done, it could be performed on scale in all the Galician territory. The technology can be used both in the inshore and in the high-altitude fleet, replacing the current system, AIS (automatic identification system), which is becoming "obsolete."

The choice of Cellnex Telecom to participate in this pioneering project has not been at all casual. This company is currently providing the marine safeguarding service in Spain. "It's a team that makes a lot of sense and coherence because they would deploy the network and we would provide the equipment," according to Valdés.

The project in which the Egatel and Cellnex Telecom companies are now immersed, and whose implementation depends on the decision of the Galician Government, is a consequence of the Polarys initiative, in which more than a year ago several Galician companies were involved. That consortium envisaged the design of a system called VDES to improve maritime communications, replacing the one currently used, which consisted in advancing the development of the maritime communications system, but using a satellite, which represented a qualitative leap, since the ships would still have coverage once they entered the high seas.

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