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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?"
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
- Sig
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!
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.
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
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.
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
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!
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.
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.