High speed internet coming to RCCL

[Popeye II]

Adam M. Goldstein, President and CEO, Royal Caribbean International announces - “This milestone agreement with O3b Networks enables us to provide our guests with unprecedented Internet service at sea aboard Oasis of the Seas and potentially in the future aboard other ships in our fleet.”

Internet/satellite equipment has started being replaced on some Celebrity ships already.

http://www.o3bnetworks.com/video-player.aspx?vid=1914#vid1914

[Beth C]

It's about time... Every time I log on on a ship I expect the computer to start the dial up ~scream~ followed by "welcome to AOL" lol ;)

 

 

Sent from my Speak & Spell using Tapatalk

[Clovis8]

Will I have this by my feb 23 sail date?

[kymbakitty]

Adam M. Goldstein, President and CEO, Royal Caribbean International announces - “This milestone agreement with O3b Networks enables us to provide our guests with unprecedented Internet service at sea aboard Oasis of the Seas and potentially in the future aboard other ships in our fleet.”

Internet/satellite equipment has started being replaced on some Celebrity ships already.

http://www.o3bnetworks.com/video-player.aspx?vid=1914#vid1914

 

I shudder to think how much this service will be. I am not positive, but I believe internet is a huge cash cow as it stands now. I can't imagine giving up a huge profit just to satisfy many passengers desires to get with it, technologically speaking. Like the other poster, I wouldn't be surprised if I heard the old dial up tone when I log in on a cruise ship. And with all the technology worldwide, we all know it doesn't have to be this way.

 

Either way, I would pay for the convenience. I think they know that....but it will still be interesting to see how much they charge for the service. I no longer pay for internet at Hilton/Marriott properties (free), so it seems pretty crazy when I still pay per minute on a cruise ship.

[StarSong]

I own a business and being out of touch for a week isn't an option for me. Even if it costs more, I'll be happy to see high speed internet. Their on for one minute, off for two, was not a lot of fun.

[dchillis]

Yes about time... such a pain spending most of the online time waiting.

[Cotswold Eagle]

Will I have this by my feb 23 sail date?

 

Well, as I pointed out when this news first broke a few months ago, O3b haven't actually launched any satellites yet :) They have, at least, now built one and as I understand it they hope to launch enough to operate a network of sorts by mid-2013. We'll see.

[ctcruiser1721]

I own a business and being out of touch for a week isn't an option for me. Even if it costs more, I'll be happy to see high speed internet. Their on for one minute, off for two, was not a lot of fun.

 

I'm hoping it will cost less. So many minutes that we pay for are now spent waiting rather then being productive.

[jcl410]

Will I have this by my feb 23 sail date?

 

 

Unfortunately, no.... The initial eight satellites are scheduled to be launched in the 1st quarter of 2013.... They hope to start service in September...

 

A Google search shows that the Oasis will be getting 500mbps service. I haven't seen how much of that bandwidth will be used for passenger Internet service.

 

Aloha,

 

John

[Familygoboston]

Nomadix provided satellite internet on my recent PG cruise from the middle of the South Pacific and we found it very efficient...we were able to check messages not much more slowly than at home, and we could FaceTime with some lag in video, but voice was v good. They use satellites. The only thing that slowed it a bit was the peak times (with a 3-6 hour time difference from E to W coasts, late afternoons were v busy because of bandwidth. I wonder why RCL isn't using a service that already has satellites and works well elsewhere? We used our free minutes on RCL and it was terrible, I won't pay till it improves. But our experience proves it's possible to get decent service at sea and we only paid $62 for 250 minutes.

[Ocean Boy]

"High Speed" is a relative term. Considering the speed of the connections at sea right now, mailing a letter through the postal service could be considered high speed.:eek:

[Sinppu]

Hooray!! (assuming it will work, be better than before and not take 5 years) :cool:

[BillOh]

Adam M. Goldstein, President and CEO, Royal Caribbean International announces - “This milestone agreement with O3b Networks enables us to provide our guests with unprecedented Internet service at sea aboard Oasis of the Seas and potentially in the future aboard other ships in our fleet.”

Internet/satellite equipment has started being replaced on some Celebrity ships already.

http://www.o3bnetworks.com/video-player.aspx?vid=1914#vid1914

 

Who hoo! 56k baud at last! ;) (showing my age there)

[tahqa]

Unfortunately, no.... The initial eight satellites are scheduled to be launched in the 1st quarter of 2013.... They hope to start service in September...

 

A Google search shows that the Oasis will be getting 500mbps service. I haven't seen how much of that bandwidth will be used for passenger Internet service.

 

Aloha,

 

John

 

Hmm... not sure I believe that 500mbps service quote. The current technology caps out at around 15 mpbs for satellite internet service, but maybe these new satellites that they are launching have improved on that.

 

 

Also, satellite internet may be high bandwidth but it is also high latency. The lowest possible packet round trip is .5 second (speed of light to the satellite and back x2) but because of other 'normal' delays incurred in internet routing the expected packet round trip is on the order of 1 to 1.4 second.

 

 

So, in other words, satellite connections are great for downloading and streaming, but not so great for real time interactions.

[ERIE 13]

Can't come fast enough.

[BillOh]

"High Speed" is a relative term. Considering the speed of the connections at sea right now, mailing a letter through the postal service could be considered high speed.:eek:

 

True. I'm really only interested in this thread from a technical standpoint having been in IT for 20+ years and having worked for a major IP for 10 years. I normally don't use the internet at all. The only exception was (pre smart phone days) when I misplaced my paper with my return flight info on it. I used my Crown and Anchor coupon for $5 in free internet. It took me all of 90 seconds to get to orbitz and look at my flights so I used the remaining time to go to a throughput benchmarking site I use and it showed a download speed of 187KPS at that time on Majesty.

[dchillis]

Unfortunately, no.... The initial eight satellites are scheduled to be launched in the 1st quarter of 2013.... They hope to start service in September...

 

A Google search shows that the Oasis will be getting 500mbps service. I haven't seen how much of that bandwidth will be used for passenger Internet service.

 

Aloha,

 

John

 

500mbps? that totally blows away my fios @ 20mbps and its screaming fast. If the CL offered 5% of that BW I'd be more then happy.

[tahqa]

For those interested in the technology here is a presentation on it:

 

http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/asp/CMS/Events/2009/PacMinForum/doc/PPT_Theme-2_O3bNetworks.pdf

 

 

The short version is that these are not geostationary satellites sitting at 35,786 km but are equatorial satellites at 8,000 km, so less than 1/4 the distance. Which means that they are much closer and therefore have significantly less latency. The company is claiming performance equivalent to long-haul fiber.

 

 

The downside is that it's best suited for cruises relatively close to the equator. The satellites have full coverage of Africa, for example, but nothing north of Spain (or Chicago). The satellite constellation limits their coverage.

 

 

The company was supposed to have launched their satellites starting in 2009 but as of now none have been put into orbit. They need 8 for their constellation and all 8 are supposed to go up next year via Soyuz-2-1b Fregat boosters.

 

 

It'll be great when it happens, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Cotswold Eagle]

Hmm... not sure I believe that 500mbps service quote. The current technology caps out at around 15 mpbs for satellite internet service, but maybe these new satellites that they are launching have improved on that.

 

 

Also, satellite internet may be high bandwidth but it is also high latency. The lowest possible packet round trip is .5 second (speed of light to the satellite and back x2) but because of other 'normal' delays incurred in internet routing the expected packet round trip is on the order of 1 to 1.4 second.

 

 

So, in other words, satellite connections are great for downloading and streaming, but not so great for real time interactions.

 

That's O3b's selling point - they are going to use a constellation in medium earth orbit, so a lot closer then geo-synchronous and therefore lower latency. They are claiming about 130ms. There's a white paper on latency on their website.

 

Edit: we posted at the same time!

[johneeo]

Who hoo! 56k baud at last! ;) (showing my age there)

 

I remember how great it was upgading to a 14.4 Baud modem.

 

XDown, ZDown, Off line readers, Compuserve, all text based internet, no graphics, NONE.

 

Another biggie was the introduction of the "amber" screen from the old green text.

 

315 MB disk drive was bigger and heavier than a bowling ball.:eek:

 

And no kiddies, I am not exaggerating.

[sherilyn70]

I remember how great it was upgading to a 14.4 Baud modem.

 

XDown, ZDown, Off line readers, Compuserve, all text based internet, no graphics, NONE.

 

Another biggie was the introduction of the "amber" screen from the old green text.

 

315 MB disk drive was bigger and heavier than a bowling ball.:eek:

 

And no kiddies, I am not exaggerating.

 

Oh, remember the couplers and our super fast connections of 1200 baud!

 

 

My first smart phone (kyocera qcp 6035) had a 14.4 modem speed in it as well!! I used to think that was amazing getting the internet on my phone at such a fast speed, lol.

[Ladysilver]

That will be so nice! :D

[wscott52]

Who hoo! 56k baud at last! ;) (showing my age there)

 

Hehe. My first modem was a 1200 bps on a Commodore 128. I thought it was really cool because you didn't have to set the handset in it, it connected directly to the phone line. I connected to local BBSs and played chess on Quantum Link (precursor to AOL). By 1993 I was pure Internet with a local ISP called Cybergate. You had to download software from their BBS and manually insert the TCP/IP stack in Windows, not exactly the definition of user friendly. I was ecstatic when Windows 95 came Internet ready right out of the box.

[BillOh]

I shudder to think how much this service will be. I am not positive, but I believe internet is a huge cash cow as it stands now. I can't imagine giving up a huge profit just to satisfy many passengers desires to get with it, technologically speaking. Like the other poster

 

While I avoid the internet like Noro while on a cruise, our cruise this spring was with a friend who runs an internet business and he could work for about an hour a day and still enjoy his vacation. More and more people are like this and cruises do have to compete with other destination vacations that offer a decent internet.

[BillOh]

I remember how great it was upgading to a 14.4 Baud modem.

 

XDown, ZDown, Off line readers, Compuserve, all text based internet, no graphics, NONE.

 

Another biggie was the introduction of the "amber" screen from the old green text.

 

315 MB disk drive was bigger and heavier than a bowling ball.:eek:

 

And no kiddies, I am not exaggerating.

 

I'm with you, CompuServe is where I spent 10 years of my life. It was a great time till it was bought out by AOHell