Notice on Risk in Excessive Communication Costs of Backup Lines

Notice on Risk in Excessive Communication Costs of Backup Lines

Thank you for your continued business.

In recent times, with the prevalence of high-capacity communication
systems (such as Starlink), the usage of email on vessels has surged
dramatically. It's not uncommon for some vessels to conduct over 1GB
of email communication per month.

Given this situation, we would like to draw your attention to the
potential risk of incurring high communication costs during using backup
lines.

Typically, the backup lines such as FBB and Certus are configured to
allow only email communication to pass through the firewall in the
event of the main access is down, while blocking all other forms of
communication. Thus, this setup has avoided excessive charges such as
web and DNS traffic would not occur during the backup.

However, with the increasing volume in email communication and the
rising cost per MB in each communication plan, incidents have occured
where backup communication costs reach thousands of dollars.

For instance, if the main VSAT line is out of service for nearly a
month, and all email communication is routed through the backup line,
costs can escalate significantly. While in traditional cases, backup
usage for a few days might result in only a few hundred dollars of
charges. However, a month-long outage of the main line, with all email
traffic up to 1GB being routed through the backup line could result in
costs exceeding $10,000.

Subscribing to low-volume plans for backup lines can result in cost
escalation because low-volume plans tend to have higher per MB
charges. Meanwhile, the increase in email volume combined with the
rise in MB charges lead to risks of unexpected communication costs.

In the below, we’ve categorized scenarios into two cases: Risk-Free
and Risky, by pairing up the main and backup lines. For the Risky
case, we suggest plans to be reassessed or warnings and suspensions to
be implemented to prevent excessive usage.

Risk-Free Scenarios (Case A):

・GX + FBB: Fixed price upon switching to FBB.
・VSAT + FBB Backup Plan: Fixed price upon switching to FBB.
・VSAT + Certus Backup Plan: Fixed price upon switching to Certus.
・Starlink + VSAT Fixed Plan: Fixed price upon switching to VSAT.
・Starlink + FX: Fixed price upon switching to FX.

Risky Scenarios (Case B):

・VSAT + FBB: Usage-Based Pricing
・VSAT + Certus: Usage-Based Pricing
・Starlink + VSAT: Usage-Based Pricing
・Starlink + FBB: Usage-Based Pricing
・Starlink + Certus: Usage-Based Pricing

Strategy Suggestions

・Select a pricing plan that aligns with expected backup usage.
・Alternatively, Implement warnings in case of excessive usage.
・Set up automatic suspension of communication in case of excessive usage.

Kindly note that the availability of Warning/Suspend features may vary
depending on the carriers, so please consult with us for further
details.

Thanks & best regards.