Maritime Telecommunications Network

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Maritime Telecommunications Network (known as MTN) is a satellite telecommunications service provider headquartered in Miramar, Florida, USA. The company revolutionized the cruiseline communication industry by being the first to provide C band stabilized antenna technology. MTN originally was an independent company founded in 1990 in Holmdel, New Jersey, USA, but it is currently owned by Seamobile Enterprises from Seattle, Washington, USA. MTN provides services to most of the major cruise lines including Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean International, Norwegian Cruise Lines and many other cruise lines around the world as well as other maritime groups including luxury yachts, oil rigs, military vessels and non-passenger commercial vessels.

[edit] Bloom Mobile

By request from NBC's David Bloom, Maritime Telecommunications Network engineered a satellite-based mobile communications platform widely known as the "Bloom Mobile". David Bloom had worked with engineers from MTN to create a mobile satellite transmission unit to mount on an M88 tank recovery vehicle and transmit sharp broadcast quality pictures live at 50 mph (80 kph). The camera sent microwave signals to a converted Ford truck modified to carry a large C band stabilized satellite antenna regularly used for the maritime industry while riding several miles back in the Army's 3rd Infantry Division convoy. Images were beamed to NBC and streamed live on MSNBC.com throughout the first weeks of the Iraq War first weeks. NBC correspondent David Bloom, who had been narrating the war in Iraq from the refurbished tank died Sunday April 6, 2003 from a pulmonary embolism on the outskirts of Baghdad.

The Bloom Mobile has been deployed to cover other NBC stories including live coverage of Hurricane Isabel.

[edit] USS Scranton and Good Morning America

On November 23, 2005 ABC's Good Morning America ran a segment called "Run Silent, Run Deep" which was broadcast live from the nuclear submarine USS Scranton (SSN-756) while it was submerged and moving. The submarine and the US Navy support vessel USNS Dolores Chouest were each equipped with a 1900 MHz high-gain microwave antenna and equipment. The people on board the submarine had cellular service via a CDMA PICO cell on board the support vessel. The cell was provided by Wireless Maritime Services, a joint venture between MTN and Cingular Wireless. The submarine transmitted the live video broadcast quality to the Dolores Chouest using bidirectional microwave radios. The cellular technology was used to support all of the live two-way communications between the studio in New York and the submarine below the surface. All of the video and cellular traffic was uplinked via MTN's communications technology on board the Dolores Chouest.