Connectivity for shipping has been stuck in the late twentieth century at speeds in the hundreds of Kbps, fit for only voice and basic data in many cases, with few options beyond very small aperture terminal (VSAT) systems served by geostationary (GEO) satellites. A dramatic improvement is in the wings through a combination of alternative offshore communications platforms, especially low earth orbiting (LEO) satellites, and integration with terrestrial 5G under the auspices of 3GPP. More rapid progress is coming for near-shore communications, which has already tapped into cellular networks on land and is now being boosted by dedicated 5G deployments, serving offshore wind farms and oil rigs, among others. These strands are being united through standardization efforts that extend existing…