Cheap Internet Access at Sea

choi

Brady Dale, Internet at Sea, a Life for Me. Its a pricey proposition to connect a commercial ship to the Internet. A new device capsizes the business model, lifting sailors’ spirits. Fortune, June 30, 2014.
fortune.com/2014/06/12/cbird-maritime-broadband/

Note:
(a)
(i) Hellespont Progress (IMO: 9351426; built in 2006 by New Century Shipbuilding Co, Ltd 新世纪造船有限公司, Jingjiang 江苏省泰州市 靖江市 江阴—靖江工业园区, China; owner: Hellespont Hammonia, Hamburg, Germany)
(ii) IMO numbers
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMO_numbers

(b) “designed by a Brooklyn-based company called Maritime Broadband * * * The C-Bird is the brainchild of Zevi Kramer * * * he developed a very small aperture terminal antenna that worked on the so-called C band of frequencies, often used for satellite communication and considered reliable in rainy conditions."
(i) The German, Dutch, and Jewish (Ashkenazic) surname Kramer indicated “a shopkeeper, peddler, or hawker, from an agent derivative of Middle High German, Middle Low German kram ‘trading post’, ‘tent’, ‘booth.’”
(ii) very small aperture terminal
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very-small-aperture_terminal
(VSAT; two-way)
(iii) C band (4-8 gigahertz) is a division of SHF (super-high frequency or microwaves; 3-30 GHz). See the table in section 3 Electromagnetic spectrum of
electromagnetic radiation
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_radiation

(c) Maritime Broadband
maritimebroadband.com/
(main office in Brooklyn, NY)

Look only at the section heading “Breakthrough Technology,” whose graphic indicates its forte:

“State of the arty satellite tracking for reliable performance

“2.4 meter diameter

"Total assembled weight: 400Kg

(d) "'They [people of Maritime Broadband] really pushed Inmarsat, the 500-pound gorilla,' says Jim Lawrence, chairman of Marine Money International"

Inmarsat
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inmarsat
(founded in 1979 as the International Maritime Satellite Organization (Inmarsat), a not-for-profit international organization; now a commercial company listed in London Stock Exchange (LSE); Headquarters London)
  
is now well known, for supplying clues to the whereabouts of MH370 airliner (whether they are correct or not, I have no idea).