Internet Access While Sailing? (Revisited)

El Genio Malvado writes "10 years ago the question was asked, What is the best way to get Internet while at sea? After reading the responses — and after a decade of technological advancement — is there a better, more reliable method? For someone with the ability to telecommute 100% of the time, then the idea of sailing around the world with a paycheck direct deposited must be getting more and more tempting. What does the community at large have for modern resources for constant streaming internet at sea?"

Comments

BGAN

[Anonymous Coward]

If you have the money, look into BGAN terminals. Hughes and Thrane & Thrane are the two major manufacturers.

I'm too lazy to insert links, google is your friend.

Re:BGAN

[Anonymous Coward]

"BGAN terminals are not allowed to be used on the open ocean on a moving vessel. Inmarsat has created the FleetBroadband service that uses the I4 satellites for maritime communication."

Re:BGAN

[Anonymous Coward]

From wikipedia:
BGAN terminals are not allowed to be used on the open ocean on a moving vessel. Inmarsat has created the FleetBroadband service that uses the I4 satellites for maritime communication.

Re:BGAN

[Albanach]

Yes, for near global coverage it looks like Immarsat still rules.

Here's some pricing:

http://www.ocens.com/inmarsat/inmarsat_FB_airtime.htm

Looks like you'd need to be on a fairly good gig, or fill the boat with similarly employed geeks!

NMT

[etnoy]

In some countries the NMT system is still operational and is used by ships for it's excellent coverage (compared to GSM, that is). Don't have any links at the moment, but I know some ships that are using NMT to get an OK network connection when out on the sea. Other than that, I think I remember you can surf using VHF. Don't know about SSB, internet over SSB would be slow but with an awesome coverage. Last resort: Satellite.

Re:NMT

[neurophys]

I use the NMT - system as implemented in Scandinavia (http://www.ice.no/). It works all places I sail. It cost approx as an ADSL-connection. I opted for a plan of $30/week when in use (summer and winter holidays) and nothing at other times.

Re:NMT

[realityimpaired]

Yes, but where do you sail? I looked at the wikipedia article and the NMT doesn't seem to be implemented outside of parts of Europe these days, and even when implemented it seems to have a maximum range of about 30km for a cell. Kinda useless if you're in the middle of the Indian ocean, or even in Europe, if you're in parts of the North Sea or the Mediterranean. 30km isn't *that* far in nautical terms.

The only product that'll work regardless of where the person is actually sailing is something like Inmarsat, as others have said. Chances are that if you're expecting you'll be sailing in an area where cellular coverage is a possibility, you'll probably want to be looking at a UMTS or HSDPA-based Internet access instead of NMT, since you'll find coverage for that in coastal areas in most of the populated parts of the world, whereas NMT doesn't really work in, say, Australia or the Caribbean.

BGAN

[chainsaw1]

This was asked sooner than 10 years ago, and I'll repeat my answer to that thread.

You want BGAN. It's an INMARSAT service. Designed for marine use, but will not be cheap

http://www.inmarsat.com/Services/Land/BGAN/default.aspx

Inmarsat FleetBroadband

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.inmarsat.com/Services/Maritime/FleetBroadband/default.aspx

Re:Inmarsat FleetBroadband

[n1ywb]

Agreed, Fleet Broadband is your only good option. It's not particularly cheap, though it doubles as a sat phone which you'd probably want anyway. I guess it all depends on how much bandwidth you need vs how much money you make. It's not particularly fast either, 300k-ish if I recall, and it's a shared channel(s). But it's much faster and cheaper than the older F-77 technology.

Also that equipment isn't the worlds most reliable, you either need to buy two so you can have a backup, or think hard about how much downtime will cost you when you are two weeks out of kerplopistan harbor and nobody there knows how to fix one of these things so you have to get parts flown in air-freight.

The trouble is most satellites use spot-beams to focus their signals on continental areas, where the people are. They intentionally focus their signals AWAY from the ocean, where the people are not. Services like Hugues Net, etc. They usually work in coastal areas, but that's about it.

A few solutions

[Anonymous Coward]

1. A lot of marina's seem to be starting offer wifi which covers the moorings. So you can at least get online when in port at reasonable speeds.
2. GSM coverage usually extends at least 10 miles offshore, if you're travelling parallel to the coast (and it depends where in the world you are) you might be able to use GSM networks. Getting hold of local sim cards is much cheaper than paying roaming fees.
3. Iridium phones can manage dial up internet access at 2400bps for around $1.50 per minute. Globalstar phones will give you 9600bps but (despite the name) coverage is far from global. Thuraya give you "unlimited" internet access for a mere $3550 per month and speeds into hundreds of kilobits per second. Other's have already mentioned Imarsat's BGAN. http://www.satphone.co.uk/index.shtml has good info on all of these.
4. Try and rig up something over amateur radio and use an AX25 to TCPIP gateway. Speeds will be slow (a few kilobits per second at best) and its likely to be unreliable. But it should be cheap/free.

Re:A few solutions

[Anonymous Coward]

4. Try and rig up something over amateur radio and use an AX25 to TCPIP gateway. Speeds will be slow (a few kilobits per second at best) and its likely to be unreliable. But it should be cheap/free.

OP said he wanted to do work over this link. One of the rules of amateur radio is "non commercial use".

Thrane & Thrane SAILOR 500 Fleet Broadband

[ChapsRL8]

The million dollar carbon fiber sailboats that compete in the Volvo Ocean Race in 2009 used three systems for voice, data, and fax communications. The one that I recall was Thrane & Thrane SAILOR 500 Fleet Broadband. They would shoot HD video with HD cameras and then upload clips via that system from the middle of the ocean. SAILOR 500 Fleet Broadband is a complete system with bandwidth up to 432kbps and allows phone calls to be placed at the same time. I believe the monthly service fee is upwards of $400 a month excluding equipment fees and installation. http://www.thrane.com/Maritime/Products/Satellite%20Communication/SAILOR%20FleetBroadband/SAILOR%20500%20FleetBroadband.aspx

Iridium NEXT

[grumling]

If you're willing to wait another 5 years, Iridium is in the process of replacing their constellation:

http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/iridium/44300/

Pigeon

[retech]

If you are ANYWHERE near South Africa, New Zealand or Oz use a carrier pigeon it's faster than access here anyway and heaps cheaper. Plus you won't get nailed when going over your data cap!

iDirect

[falconcy]

Forget BGAN, they charge on actual throughput and can be pretty expensive to operate. What you actually need is a SeaTel or similar tracking antenna - this will constantly keep you connected to the satellite as you are mobile, an iDirect http://www.idirect.net/ 3000 series or X3 modem (depends on the provider you use) and a subscription with one of the many providers of such services. The initial setup costs could be a bit pricey, so just look at the hardware cost as an investment. Your best bet is a provider with the ability to actually offer service over multiple satellites covering most of the globe. It can get a bit complicated when switching satellites so choose a company which specializes in Maritime VSAT services, they will be able to advise you on how best to do this.

Lots of choices - None that good

[abarrow]

Much depends on where you are going to be, exactly what access you want, and how much you are willing to pay.

Long distance cruisers generally go for SSB-based email (either Sailmail or Winlink) because it's cheap and relatively reliable. Of course, "reliable" in this context means that depending on the HF propagation conditions you can probably get an email message out sometime that day. And you are limited to short, text-only messages. Still, these days you can update blogs, Facebook, etc. via email...

Other systems like Ocens are also available for email via Iridium.

After that, if you are offshore and away from GSM coverage, you start talking about real bucks. Inmarsat is the most common. Iridium, Inmarsat, Globalstar, etc. all pretty much have two things in common - they are slow compared to land-based systems and they bill by the bit.. a lot. Streaming video and surfing Spring Break Girls Gone Wild is probably not in the cards. Hell, even checking a webmail email account is not really feasible unless you are Carlos Slim and own a telephone company.

So, that's a long way of getting around to saying this: In the past 10 years, not a lot has changed. Inshore, close to cell coverage, you can do very well. Offshore, you are still pretty much stuck with the same old systems that were in place 10 years ago, only now they are more expensive. Oh, and in the case of Globalstar, they are also less reliable now.

Re:Lots of choices - None that good

[abarrow]

Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention - WiFi coverage is getting to be scary ubiquitous. About two weeks ago I had a Skype conversation with a friend on his boat in Tuamotus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuamotus, which is basically a circular bump in the water that has a village with about 10 people and two chickens. Pretty much all over the South Pacific they find the same thing: there is usually a somewhat-usable WiFi connection available.

There are some realities with offshore cruising that still would probably make your round-the-world telecommuting dream possible.

1. You don't do much during passages except stand watch, sleep and eat. If you think you are going to be able to crank out that last bit of code during a passage, you are kidding yourself. It's either too bumpy or too busy. You don't want to do other things except keep the boat moving toward your destination.

2. Crusing sailboats spend a very small percentage of their lives making passages. 10% is a lot. Most of the time is spent at anchor or in marinas enjoying the local color. Assuming you are in a place with WiFi, you are pretty much good to go.

3. You can use text-only email to keep up with things during your passages. That may be enough until you get to where you have better Internet access.

4. I don't know where you thinking of going, but pretty much your longest passage is going to be around 4 weeks offshore. That's West Coast to the Marquesas. Otherwise, you just won't be out of touch for that long.

plug for OpenCPN

[Anonymous Coward]

OT, but any sailors reading this will love it: cross platform GPL'd navigation software that is as good as any other you'd pay too much for. Reads all the common chart formats. Vibrant user/developer community.

http://www.opencpn.org/

Re:Cruise Ship + Cantenna = ??

[Cidtek]

No sailboat can keep up with a cruse ship. At least not the type of sailboat we're talking about here.

Re:Islands and Pirates!

[icebraining]

Without such an acknowledgement, somebody could just sail out there and murder everyone without consequence.

I don't think so:

The Convention on the High Seas is an international treaty created to codify the rules of international law relating to the high seas, otherwise known as international waters. The treaty was one of four agreed upon at the first United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS I). The treaty was signed 29 April 1958 and entered into force 30 September 1962.

And the text includes:

Article 15

Piracy consists of any of the following acts:

  (1) Any illegal acts of violence, detention or any act of depredation,
committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship
or a private aircraft, and directed:

  (a) On the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against
          persons or property on board such ship or aircraft;
  (b) Against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the
          jurisdiction of any State;

  (2) Any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an
aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft;

  (3) Any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described
in sub-paragraph 1 or sub-paragraph 2 of this article.

                                                            Article 16

The acts of piracy, as defined in article 15, committed by a warship,
government ship or government aircraft whose crew has mutinied and taken
control of the ship or aircraft are assimilated to acts committed by a
private ship.