Marinas & Leisure Waterfronts
Private 5G for coastal yacht harbours, inland canal marinas, and boatyards. Pontoon CCTV, smart berth allocation, electric-boat charging, and berth-holder connectivity — without the per-berth WiFi access-point sprawl.
UK marinas span hundreds of berths across exposed outdoor sites — high-value vessels, liveaboards, electric-boat charging, CCTV, smart metering. WiFi struggles past the office wall and 4G dongles on every boat is a non-answer. Private 5G blankets the whole basin (pontoons included) with one managed network suited to coastal yacht harbours and inland canal marinas alike.
What Private 5G Enables
One managed network across pontoons, boatyard and harbour office.
Pontoon CCTV & Perimeter Security
Cover the whole basin — pontoons, slipway, fuel berth, hardstanding — with high-bandwidth video. One private 5G network replaces dozens of waterproof outdoor APs and the cable-trough nightmare that comes with them.
Smart Berth Allocation & Metering
Per-berth water and electricity submetering, ANPR for the boatyard gate, and live berth-occupancy maps for the harbour office. IoT density that WiFi can't sustain across an exposed pontoon array.
Electric Boat & EV Charging
Marinas are the natural grid edge for marine and car-park EV charging. A managed 5G network handles charge-point telemetry, OCPP backhaul, and the load-balancing comms between chargers and the marina's site supply.
Berth-Holder & Liveaboard Connectivity
Sell connectivity-as-a-service to liveaboards and seasonal berth-holders instead of leaving them on patchy 4G dongles. One operator-grade signal across the marina, billed per berth, with the marina taking the margin.
Who Runs UK Marinas
From single-operator coastal groups to the inland canal network, UK marinas are consolidating into groups with the scale to invest in connectivity.
Premier Marinas
9 coastal marinas across the south coast — Brighton, Eastbourne, Falmouth, Gosport, Noss-on-Dart, Port Solent, Southsea, Swanwick. The largest single-operator UK marina group by berths.
MDL Marinas
18 marinas across the UK including Hamble Point, Ocean Village, Penarth Quays and Northney — one of the largest UK marina groups by site count.
Aquavista
30+ inland marinas on the canal and river network — Mercia, Tattenhall, Tewkesbury and others. UK's largest inland marina operator.
Boatfolk
8 coastal marinas including Royal Quays (Tyne), Haslar (Gosport) and Cobb's Quay (Poole). Mid-sized coastal operator.
Sources: British Marine , The Yacht Harbour Association
Why Aerix
Marina IT budgets are spent on PMS systems, fuel-pump integrations and harbour radio — not on overlaying enterprise WiFi across a 400-berth pontoon array. Private 5G replaces the AP-per-pontoon model with one managed signal that reaches every berth and every yard corner, sized and priced for SME marina operators rather than container terminals.
Common questions
Why is WiFi so poor on marina pontoons?
Marinas are exposed outdoor sites where WiFi was never designed to work — signal dies past the harbour office, masts and hulls block line of sight, and salt air corrodes outdoor access points. Covering a 400-berth pontoon array properly means dozens of waterproof APs, armoured cable runs through the pontoons, and constant maintenance. Private 5G covers the whole basin from one or two radio points instead.
Can berth-holders and liveaboards use the network?
Yes — and this is often where the business case lives. Instead of leaving berth-holders on patchy 4G dongles, the marina can offer operator-grade connectivity as a paid service, billed per berth, with the marina taking the margin. Liveaboards in particular value reliable connectivity highly and will pay for it.
Does it work for inland canal marinas as well as coastal harbours?
Yes. Inland marinas often have worse public mobile coverage than coastal ones, and the same use cases apply — CCTV, berth metering, gate ANPR, customer connectivity. The network is sized to the site, whether that is a 50-berth canal basin or a 1,000-berth coastal harbour.
What about CCTV and security across the pontoons?
High-value vessels and open waterfront access make security a constant concern. A private 5G network carries high-bandwidth video from cameras anywhere on the site — pontoon ends, fuel berth, slipway, boatyard — without trenching cable or relying on WiFi backhaul that drops in bad weather.
Is this not over-engineered for an SME marina operator?
A fair question — most private 5G deployments to date have been container terminals and factories. But the equipment cost has fallen substantially, and a marina deployment is typically one or two small-cell radios plus a compact core, sized and priced for an SME operation. We model the business case against what the marina currently spends on WiFi maintenance, leased lines and lost berth-holder revenue.
Ready to connect your marina?
Whether you run a coastal yacht harbour, an inland canal marina, or a boatyard, we can build a private 5G network that fits your scale and budget.