Over just two seasons, satellite connectivity on board yachts has shifted from being a costly, limited service to becoming a critical piece of onboard infrastructure, now taken for granted by owners, captains and crews. Until recently, geostationary VSAT was the only viable option; today, low-Earth-orbit constellations – Starlink, OneWeb and, soon, Amazon’s Kuiper – are redefining technical standards, business models and even the design of new builds.

We discussed all of this with Paolo Tagliapietra, who has long overseen satellite connectivity for Videoworks, and with Eric Beruschi, sales account at the same company and a new point of reference for clients and shipyards.

PressMare – Paolo, let’s start with the state of the art. In recent years, connectivity on board has become a central topic both for new builds and refits. What has actually changed?

Paolo Tagliapietra – The difference is that connectivity is no longer an “optional”, but a true onboard infrastructure, on the same level as the electrical system or HVAC. In new builds, yachts are now designed from the outset to host LEO systems – primarily Starlink, supported by OneWeb – and an IT architecture sized to handle large data flows logically and securely. During refits, instead, we work on existing systems: whenever a yacht enters the yard for major works, connectivity is almost always one of the areas where the owner demands a significant upgrade.

PM – One of the most visible changes is the disappearance of large radomes from yacht rooftops. Is this just an aesthetic choice, or is there more behind it?

PT – Design plays a role – designers have been pursuing DOMless layouts for years – but the real reason is technical. Geostationary VSAT is a 30-year-old technology developed for a world where a few megabits were already “a lot”. Today, speaking in kilobytes per second is like going back to the analogue modems of the ’90s: limited bandwidth, high latency, high costs.

A real example: I recently had to reactivate a VSAT for a client in Türkiye, where Starlink has no licence. We’re talking about 5 Mbit/s dedicated at around USD 10,000 per month. Meanwhile, the same yachts running Starlink Maritime operate at speeds and costs that aren’t even comparable.

PM – Staying with Starlink: in less than two years, perception in the yachting world has completely shifted. How has this translated on board?

PT – We are now in our second–third full season with Starlink installed on our clients’ yachts, and it has effectively become a de-facto standard. In 2026 we had almost 60 yachts under Starlink contracts and did not experience major service issues. It is a product born as consumer but behaving extremely reliably in maritime applications.

The key point is that we have moved from a world where bandwidth had to be “counted and saved” to a scenario where owners and guests expect streaming, videoconferencing, cloud services and business tools “as at home”, anywhere the yacht is.

PM – From a physical standpoint, the difference between VSAT and the new constellations is the orbit. Can you explain what LEO means on board a yacht?

PT – The principle is simple: the closer the satellite is to Earth, the lower the latency and the better time-sensitive applications perform. Geostationary VSAT satellites sit at around 36,000 km; the signal travels an extremely long distance with inevitable delays. LEO constellations operate much lower: Starlink around 500–600 km; OneWeb at roughly 1,200 km.

The practical effect is smooth HD video calls, gaming, remote system control and multiple simultaneous streaming sessions. Starlink now has thousands of satellites in orbit – over 9000 – distributed across various orbital shells, with coverage so extensive that the residential service has reached saturation in some areas of the UK.

PM – You use Starlink and OneWeb in a complementary way. How do they truly position themselves within yachting?

PT – Starlink is explicitly a consumer-driven product, later extended to maritime and aviation. Its core target is millions – actually billions – of land-based users. Yachting is a niche, interesting, but still a niche.

OneWeb – now Eutelsat OneWeb – is inherently professional: designed for maritime, oil & gas and corporate customers; it does not address the consumer market and effectively positions itself as the natural successor of VSAT for maritime use.

In practice, Starlink has shown high reliability, with rare outages: across dozens of vessels, we recorded only one significant interruption – around three hours – due to a failed update over three full seasons.

OneWeb offers a protected, professional-grade network but currently shows some instability and tops out at around 100 Mbit/s, with room for improvement as more satellites are launched.

That’s why we adopt a clear scheme: Starlink as primary; OneWeb as the first backup, crucial for countries where Starlink lacks local licences; and 4G/5G as an additional reserve, now used far less than in the past.

PM – Speaking of licences: how much does this influence onboard choices?

PT – A lot. Starlink depends on the licences of individual countries. If you enter waters where it is not authorised – Türkiye being the nearest example – the service simply disables itself.

OneWeb, being a professional maritime product, offers global coverage not tied to domestic licences, except for sanctioned countries such as Russia, China and others, where connectivity is disabled for geopolitical reasons.

For an owner who travels widely and wants uninterrupted service, this factor weighs almost as much as bandwidth.

PM – Eric, let’s talk costs. Satellite bandwidth used to be a “heavy” budget item. How is a LEO data package positioned today?

Eric Beruschi – The situation has changed completely. When OneWeb first entered the market, 1 terabyte per month cost EUR 8–9,000 – essentially in line with VSAT.

Today, prices match Starlink. One TB of Starlink Maritime is around EUR 1,390; OneWeb is around EUR 1,500. This means an owner can afford a multi-link configuration – Starlink as primary, OneWeb as backup – without entering the “oversized” budgets of the past.

Large yachts consuming 2.5–3 TB per month still have significant connectivity costs, but these are now perfectly compatible with operational budgets. And smaller yachts have lighter Starlink configurations, both in hardware and subscription.

PM – Looking ahead: what does Amazon’s Kuiper represent for this sector?

PT – Kuiper will be the third major player. They have already launched over 150 satellites, and the final constellation should reach 3,500–3,600.

The roadmap foresees a residential launch followed by a maritime phase expected between late 2026 and early 2027.

Amazon’s advantage is simply its customer base: millions already pay for Prime. It’s easy to imagine bundled formulas such as “add satellite connectivity for an additional monthly fee”.

Technically, Kuiper is announcing 1-Gbit/s capability from the outset – a product that starts natively in the gigabit class. What remains unclear is the management of licences and the distinction between consumer and professional profiles, likely closer to OneWeb’s model. For now, we are still dealing with partial information, though testing has begun.

PM – Paolo, let’s move inside the yacht. How is multi-source connectivity managed from an infrastructure standpoint?

PT – The key is to stop thinking in terms of “one antenna = one network” and instead consider multiple Internet sources feeding a single logical architecture.

In practice, we typically have Starlink, OneWeb, a 4G/5G module and, when in port, a shore line.

Everything is managed via an SD-WAN – a Software-Defined Wide Area Network – supplied in partnership with Speedcast. It determines which link to prioritise, how to distribute bandwidth across onboard networks, and when to activate backup via OneWeb or 5G.

Internally, we use systems such as Kerio to segment traffic: typically dedicated networks for the owner, guests, crew and ship systems, each with specific priorities.

Owners today expect seamless HD videoconferencing, access to corporate servers and the same digital tools they use ashore. This demand has grown significantly post-Covid, with many owners spending more time onboard and using the yacht as an extended office.

PM – Intelligent bandwidth management also helps bypass geo-blocked content. How does that work?

PT – It’s based on controlling the IP landing points. With SD-WAN and teleports, we can ensure the yacht “enters” the Internet with an IP address from a specific country, as if physically connected to a shore cable.

This is not a commercial VPN, which concentrates thousands of users on the same tunnel and is often blocked by streaming platforms. It is a dedicated, encrypted private network recognised as legitimate.

The practical outcome: an Italian owner can watch Sky Italia in the Caribbean, Pacific or elsewhere – and the same applies to other services and other countries, within licensing rules and available landing zones. For us as AV integrators, this is strategic: it allows cloud-first systems without oversized local servers while preserving content continuity.

PM – Eric, from a commercial standpoint, what impact has this had on data demand and your numbers?

EB – The impact has been very clear. Looking at a typical yacht over a year, we’ve seen consumption go from 1 TB/month to 2.5–3 TB/month.

Two main drivers: streaming has become the dominant form of onboard entertainment, and yachts are increasingly used as workspaces. For our connectivity division, this has meant revenue growth of around 30% year-on-year, combining more yachts under management and higher consumption per yacht.

Starlink has drastically reduced the historical margins associated with VSAT, not only for us but across the market. But bandwidth is not our core business: our model is offering an end-to-end service that includes connectivity, onboard IT infrastructure and AV systems. Bandwidth is a piece, not the centre.

PM – How are owners’ expectations changing between large superyachts and smaller yachts?

EB – There are two worlds. Owners of 50–60-metre yachts (and above) want a single interlocutor managing everything: AV systems, IT infrastructure, satellite and terrestrial connectivity. They are willing to pay 15–20% more for a turnkey managed service with 24/7 support.

Owners of smaller yachts (20–30 metres, sometimes 15) often choose a self-managed approach: they buy the Starlink hardware and subscription directly, install it and manage it themselves. This makes sense with tighter budgets and simpler onboard infrastructures.

The new trend is seeing Starlink even on 15-metre boats: previously they would rely on 4G, now they jump straight to a LEO antenna, sometimes the Mini version, which the owner can literally carry in a backpack. It shows how quickly the technology has become democratised.

PM – Paolo, you mentioned that connectivity is also power, not only service. How important will this be in the future?

PT – Almost everything we do today relies on the Internet: banking, healthcare, public services. Whoever controls connectivity controls part of a nation’s critical systems.

This is why, alongside Starlink, OneWeb and future Kuiper, we see autonomous initiatives from China and Russia launching their own constellations, often with limited transparency. It mirrors what happened with GPS: an American system, a Russian one, a Chinese one, a European one.

In the medium term, we’ll see more constellations, more players and even greater dependence on space-based infrastructure.

For yachting, this means operating in a more complex regulatory and geopolitical landscape, where choosing a connectivity partner is not just about bandwidth but also stability, licensing and long-term scenarios.

PM – Eric, finally: what does providing a 360-degree connectivity service actually mean for Videoworks?

EB – It means that when a client has an issue, they don’t need to know whether it comes from the satellite, the onboard hardware, a firewall rule or a decoder. They call us – or send a WhatsApp message, which is common with many owners – and we analyse the whole chain: satellite constellation status (Starlink, OneWeb), onboard network performance, congestion levels, bandwidth allocation (more to the owner, less to the crew), or we intervene on AV equipment and content sources.

This integration works because we don’t manage “just” connectivity: we design and integrate the entire onboard AV/IT ecosystem.

And here the handover becomes essential: Paolo brings enormous experience, including as a former captain who understands what it means to have – or not have – Internet with the owner on board. My role is to carry this approach forward, combining commercial work with real technical understanding, in a context where client numbers grow every year and expectations rise continuously.

Our medium-term goal is a fully managed connectivity service where the owner no longer cares whether bandwidth comes from Starlink, OneWeb, Kuiper or a shore cable: we decide that, using the most advanced tools available, in the most efficient way for them.