History

Seanet was conceptualized and founded in the October month of the year 2005. In January 2006, the company became operational and work began to transform concepts into reality. Business plan was drawn and business strategies were formulated, thus giving a focus and vision to the company. The succeeding months saw Seanet venturing into the development and construction of next generation stabilized VSAT antenna (C-Max) for the maritime industry. In parallel, the company went on a procurement drive and reached agreements with the vendors of GSM systems, specializing in developing and delivering network systems for remote mobile communication networks and indoor networks. In May 2006, Seanet received the license from the Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) to operate maritime GSM services. Around the same timeframe, Seanet secured its first commercial contract from a shipping company for the delivery of maritime GSM services. Autumn 2006, with the intention to patent the technology, the company endeavoured for the perfection of C-Max Antenna system and pooled in the required financial and human resources. The second and third commercial agreements were signed, before year end 2006, for the delivery of GSM services on-board fleet of maritime vessels.

In early 2007, the GSM service on first vessel was launched. Around the same time, Seanet procured its first order for the delivery of WiFi/Internet Cafe services – the C-Spot. In June 2007, Seanet ventured into the public space by raising an IPO and shares were introduced to the public by listing at the First North.  The very same month, Seanet introduced itself to the maritime industry as an emerging market power by presenting itself for the first time at the Norshipping fair in Oslo. In the subsequent months, Seanet acquired formal recognitions and memberships of both the GSMA and the ITU to operate as fully recognized and independent maritime telecom operator. In October 2007, the C-Max system’s patented sensor was verified against operational satellites for its tracking capabilities and stability. The very same month, Seanet deployed the first C-Spot, a fully featured hotspot system, on a vessel. In November 2007, Klas Lundgren took over as the new CEO at Seanet. The year ended with an agreement with US based Wireless Solutions International (WSI), allowing Seanet the access to a GSM roaming hub, thus extending the number of Seanet’s roaming partner networks to nearly 200.

Year 2008, the focus at Seanet was on increasing its influence in the Mediterranean. Seanet received an order from the Spanish shipping company, Balearia. The company acknowledged encouraging traffic revenues from the installations that were made during the year 2007/08. In the early summer of year 2008, Seanet deployed GSM services on eight more ships in the Mediterranean. During the fall of year 2008, Seanet continued to reinforce itself as the prominent market force by securing new orders from the Polish Unity Line, Italian Grimaldi Lines and additional orders for Classic International Cruises. In October, Håkan Jansson was elected as the new Chairman of the Board. Year 2008 ended with a significant strategic shift in the vision of the company where it was decided to discontinue further development efforts on cost intensive C-Max project. Instead, it was decided, that Seanet should focus predominantly on establishing itself as a leading maritime GSM and broadband operator.

In January 2009, Seanet signed a strategic agreement with Ericsson for the modernization and operations of mobile core and radio access network infrastructure. The agreement, under its scope, called for a gradual and complete migration from existing technology platforms to those provided by Ericsson. The network architecture was further reinforced by successive signing of another agreement with Belgacom International Carrier Services, a Tier 1 international carrier, to provide Seanet with Voice and Signaling interconnect. In the spring of year 2009, Seanet extended and expanded its contractual agreements encompassing Moby Lines and Endeavour Lines, among others. By early summer of the year 2009, Seanet has migrated completely over to the Ercisson’s mobile communications technology platforms. It was the month end of August year 2009, when Seanet for the first time unceremoniously announced operating profit (EBITDA). In September, the same year, Seanet received its first order to deploy maritime GSM services on-board a fleet of merchantships, under the service name M-Cell.

In March 2010, the members’ of the Seanet’s Board met and a decision was taken to strengthen the management functions of the company; Viesturs Vucins was brought in as the new CEO. Viesturs Vucins brought in the knowledge and experience of Seanet’s challenges and accomplishments as a company, as he has been the Director of the Board at Seanet since year 2008. Viesturs comes with the privilege of having held distinguished and challenging designations, such as the CEO, at enterprises like the British Telecom in Germany, Global One, Unisource, Swedish Telecom International and Ericsson Fiber Optics. In addition, over the years Viesturs Vucins has held a number of Directorships as well. His predecessor, Klas Lundgren, was re-designated as the new Vice President of Sales and Marketing and has been concentrating from then on international sales and marketing efforts at Seanet.

That very same month, Seanet entered into a five-year long strategic contract with SatPoint AB. The agreement endeavours in its essence to be win-win proposition for both the parties involved – Seanet procures satellite capacity pool from Satpoint for parts of its contracted fleet; while Satpoint would extend part of its contracted fleet to Seanet for deployment and operations of Seanet’s GSM service on-board these vessels.

In April 2010, another noteworthy agreement was signed with the Norwegian company Marlink.  Marlink is one of the world’s foremost and largest providers of satellite communication services to the shipping fleets and has over 10,000 satellite systems/links delivered to the market so far. This agreement, under its scope, will provide Seanet the much awaited opportunity to deliver GSM services to a large set of maritime customers/shipping companies.