VISITORS to this year’s Crick Boat Show may well have seen one of the most interesting new products to appear on the market for boat owners for some time, and one that is particularly apt given the show’s notoriously bad mobile data connections. Phil Pickin reports…
The company in question is Oyster Sat-Tech Limited, which has been operating in the UK since October 2007, and is a subsidiary of ten Haaft GmbH. Oyster Sat-Tech Ltd is the sole importer of the Oyster product range from ten Haaft into the UK.
The Oyster product range, which includes Oyster Connect, Oyster Access and Oyster EasyNet, is manufactured and assembled in Germany, and all are provided with a three-year warranty.
According to Pat Corby, managing director of Oyster Sat-Tech Limited, the company has, over the years, “built a reputation for supplying high-quality satellite systems, and we also offer LTE (Long Term Evolution, commonly known as 4G) and Wi-Fi solutions. Although Oyster EasyNet and Oyster Connect are 4G, Oyster Access is 5G ready. At present, 4G travels much further and more reliably than 5G and as most users will be in the countryside, LTE is the best option”.
However, what could be of particular interest to the waterways community is the Oyster EasyNet, the entry-level LTE unit. This compact unit is about the size of half a grapefruit, but despite this, it is said to have some serious range. Pat was quick to highlight that during a visit to Ireland, in a company’s yard where there was no phone signal, the Oyster EasyNet was placed on an office windowsill and received a signal of 4 Mb/s, which would be enough to watch an HD movie. This happened when other phones not connected to the product were showing as having no signal. Although in this scenario a 4Mb/s download was achieved, if the mobile network has a strong signal, the achievable download speed could be beyond 100Mb/s.
Most boat owners will have experienced difficulties in connecting via mobile networks, and when they do find a connection, all too often, many other users have too, resulting in a drop in speed and connection reliability. During a recent trade show at the NEC, the company discovered that a connection could be established from one side of Hall 2 to the other, which, in Pat’s opinion, is very impressive considering the numerous Wi-Fi networks operating within the metal structure of the NEC.
Oyster EasyNet, the product that would be of interest to the waterway’s community, includes a router that needs to be installed inside the boat and an antenna to be mounted on the roof. This router has two SIM card slots, which offer interchangeability, as you can easily swap between loaded SIMs using an app, which is said to be both user-friendly and easy to use, or by pressing a button on the router itself. Connecting is designed to be as easy as simply pointing your phone or tablet camera at one of the QR Codes on the router. This allows you to quickly join the network and make full use of the improved data connection.
The company says that the reason for the improved data connection over that provided by a phone or tablet is due to the design of the antenna. The antennas are larger than those in your phone, and they are mounted on the outside of the boat/vehicle, which enables unhindered connection to the network mast. A mobile phone is built for portability and speed, whereas this type of product has been specifically designed for connection. Typically, a phone operates at -50dbm if it has a good signal and can deteriorate to -110 dBm in poor signal areas. The Oyster EasyNet says that its antenna offers a 1 dB gain, resulting in a connection when your mobile phone signal has failed. The Oyster Access and Connect offer a 4 dB gain.
Although these dB gain figures may seem small, when compared with a mobile phone antenna (and because it is mounted on the outside of the boat), the Oyster EasyNet antenna is said to have a typical dB gain (advantage) of 20 to 25dB.
To illustrate this, a test was performed between an Android phone and an Oyster EasyNet. Both devices had an EE SIM installed, and the test was performed at the company’s premises. As can be seen from the screenshot, the mobile or cellular signal has a reading of -107 dBm, which is not particularly strong. However, the connection that the Oyster EasyNet has established is -21 dBm, which offers a much better connection to the mast.
Cost is also a factor when looking at improving your connectivity, and with products like Starlink costing around £500 for the equipment and data plans starting at £75 per month, Oyster EasyNet works out significantly cheaper. The EasyNet has a one-off purchase of £675, and then you choose the tariff and SIM card that suits you best. Pat Corby was also keen to point out that in addition to the lower cost, “there is no data harvesting on any of the Oyster products”. For more information, visit: www.oystersat-tech.co.uk
