News

Starlink Teams Up With Elcome To Offer Maritime Internet

The new service will give ships and luxury yachts internet access with speeds up to 100 times faster than currently available.

Published

1 year ago

January 9, 2023

Nour Nasir

starlink teams up with elcome to offer maritime internet

Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet startup has partnered with Elcome International — a marine electronics company headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The pairing aims to launch a new maritime-based internet service with unparalleled transfer speeds.

According to Elcome, the Starlink-backed service will offer internet speeds that are 100 times faster than conventional satellite solutions, helping the luxury yacht sector to provide a better service to clients, as well as boosting download speeds for merchant ships and even oil rigs.

“We are so excited to bring the benefits of Starlink to our customers. It’s not just about fast internet, but the opportunity for us to implement real-time remote monitoring and autonomy solutions for these customers in ways that were not previously possible. Also, consider the benefit to crew members who will now be able to better stay in touch with family and friends while out at sea,” says Jimmy Grewal, Elcome Executive Director.

Also Read: Kuwait Aims For Digital Transformation With Google Partnership

The service uses Starlink’s low-orbit satellites, which currently represent the largest constellation of their type at such an altitude. Elcome will provide their customers with installation, integration, and field support for Starlink connections, with multi-antenna arrays delivering super-fast, low-latency bandwidth.

News

Binance Receives Virtual Assets License To Operate In Dubai

As its user base nears 200 million, CEO Richard Teng believes crypto adoption will soar over the next half of the decade.

Published

18 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Nour Nasir

binance receives virtual assets license to operate in dubai

Global crypto exchange Binance has been granted a full operational license in Dubai, in a move that’s expected to accelerate digital asset adoption and strengthen the UAE’s regulatory landscape.

The virtual asset service provider license (VASP) was granted by the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) and will allow Binance to extend its current range of services to retail investors, the company announced yesterday.

The move by Dubai authorities will be critical to Binance’s strategy of growing its user base globally. The crypto exchange expects to pass the 200 million user mark “quite shortly”, according to Richard Teng, the company’s CEO.

Once that milestone is achieved, Binance will have around twice as many users as rival platform Coinbase. Meanwhile, Crypto.com, another popular exchange with 80 million users, received a Dubai VASP license last week.

“We’re seeing much greater institutional adoption and institutional money coming into this space [along with] much greater regulatory clarity and a lot more jurisdictions approving [digital asset] products that bring in new investor classes,” Binance’s Richard Tang explained, adding: “As of now, we stand at about 5% crypto adoption globally, but that will become much faster moving forward”.

Also Read: Microsoft Invests $1.5 Billion In Abu Dhabi AI Tech Firm G42

Dubai and the UAE are extremely supportive of technologies like digital assets, and have already launched initiatives to boost adoption. The UAE has ambitious plans to become a world leader in the crypto economy of the future, with Dubai in particular being noteworthy for passing a new law to regulate virtual assets to support investors and exchanges.

“Global crypto regulation is currently showing diverging signs. Some developed countries have long suffered from crypto-related frauds and illegal exchanges. On the other hand, emerging nations like the UAE and Singapore have enacted crypto laws at faced pace,” said Vijay Valecha, chief investment officer of Dubai-based Century Financial.

As the UAE gears up to become one of the fastest-growing crypto capitals worldwide, investors and talent are flocking to places like Dubai. During 2023, the Emirates as a whole realized $204 million in capital gains from cryptocurrency investments, according to blockchain data analysts Chainalysis.