Barges transport liquid cargo along the Paraná River, including gas oil, jet fuel, gasoline and naphtha products into Paraguay and exports of soya bean oil in the other direction. Push boats need broadband connectivity for operational and crew communications along the inland waterways. Some of this is covered by mobile phone networks and 4G services. But outside this coverage, vessels use Inmarsat’s L-band FleetBroadband satellite communications. This connectivity is used by onboard navigation and night operations equipment, load sensors and GPS position monitoring installed on barges. On average, each push boat consumes around 500 GB of data per month for vessel management and crew connectivity.
Part of a three-year Fleet Xpress contract, each push boat is installed with 20 IP cameras connected via onboard antennas, enabling continuous monitoring from Impala Paraguay offices. Installation work was completed in Asunción, Paraguay. The choice of Fleet Xpress represented an inland breakthrough for the hybrid combination of high-speed Ka-band plus continuous back-up over FleetBroadband’s L-band. The Paraná River is an artery for economic development, carrying around 80% of Paraguay’s trade. Inmarsat’s contract includes committed data rates backed-up by service level agreements.