Plastimo, an international player in the boating industry and Sigfox have joined forces to improve safety at sea with connected life jackets, offering total geolocation coverage across all oceans from 2020. The new products use Sigfox’s 0G network which is a low-bandwidth wireless network designed to send/receive small messages between Internet of Things (IoT) devices, thereby improving and broadening the application of digital technologies integrated into Plastimo’s safety equipment, with a specific requirement to quickly and reliably locate seafarers in the ocean.
The main challenge is to improve safety at sea with the help of the potential of connected solutions and make the products accessible to as many sailors as possible. The partnership with Sigfox will benefit Plastimo in a way that the expertise of both the giants will help provide the industry an integrated, complete and innovative solution. It will also benefit from the future ELO nanosatellite constellation, deployed and operated by Eutelsat. From 2020, the constellation will aim to support Sigfox's connectivity services, providing global coverage across all seas and oceans. Existing constellations do not offer this geolocation functionality at an affordable price for the boating market. Besides, ELO will soon support the location of a person lost at sea or shipwrecked in a Plastimo life raft or wearing a Plastimo life jacket.
Plastimo claims that its future life jackets will be equipped with Sigfox satellite connectivity that will be easily locatable across all oceans. The vests will be quite comfortable and efficient and the new connectivity will be simple to use and will not require heavy and heavy batteries for maintaining power.
