Wireless Internet...why so much?

[spongerob]

I love the Arian Huffington justification (it's already going there, so I should be able to ride along for free). It does concern me for the future of our society, but eventually experience will change this individual's mind when someone tries to freeload off him or her when they've already made the investment.

 

We routinely use satellite links to transmit large volumes of data even on land. One, we can trust that the service is secure, and two, that it can handle the volumes of data at high speed. It isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination. I've seen charges up to several hundred dollars per hour just for the connection. Add a mulitplexer and all the other associated equipment to allow several users, and it's quite an investment.

[DeltaOne]

One day, Wi-Fi will be available everywhere, and it will be free.

 

Ask that question to someone in Philadelphia.

 

I don't have all the details (perhaps someone from Philly will chime in) but the local government wanted to install WiFi that blanketed the city and make it free, open to everyone. The local phone and cable companies lobbied against the plan and won. Guess why they opposed free Wi-Fi?

[Pam in CA]

I think I should cruise for just the cost of my food and drinks. After all, the ship is going to the next port whether I'm on board or not. Heck, I could be on the QM2 and cruise for free.

[Tresa]

I'm not sure if any of you have used Wi-Fi provided by many hotels around the states and have had a 100% success rate. Most times my husband all but stands on his head with one arm extended and can only blink with one eye to keep a decent signal. Can you imagine one of these cruise ships providing Wi-Fi to all the cabins? It would be a major investment to provide enough equipment to get a decent signal everywhere AND I think we'd be looking at much higher prices. Ethernet would be pretty cool, however, I don't think the cruise line would really be expecting the kind of response they would get to that and the network would be bogged down a lot. I could see myself sitting on my balcony surfing ebay. Hey, even I don't want to miss a good deal while on vacation if the signal is decent. My past cruises I've elected to steer clear of the internet for lots of reasons but mostly I'm spoiled rotten with my broadband and would seriously have a breakdown at the slower speeds.

 

My husband is expecting his souped up Apple laptop to get here just a few weeks prior to sailing and informed me yesterday that we would be taking both laptops. Hmmm..... You know you are married to a geek when he "jokes" about putting a limit on the pairs of shoes I can pack but wants to take two laptops on vacation. Anything wrong with this picture?

[JXOPF]

Sorry to ramble on but I thought it was important to educate a little bit on the wifi generation.

:cool:

 

Along those lines, can you tell me the correct way to pronounce "WiFi" ?

 

I've heard "Why-Fi" and also "Wife." Just trying to get savvy here...:cool:

[zydecocruiser]

Actually you can use it for free. All you have to do is either hack someone else's account and/or decrypt the wireless access card scenario.

 

But the prices charged are not up to Princess (alone). The Internet access is outsourced like many other services.

 

The cost of the Internet manager is distributed among all users, for example.

 

Most Internet access at sea seems to be provided by these folks one way or another, so perhaps you might want to ask them? and/or buy stock (not sure that it is public company and too lazy at the moment to check)?

 

http://www.mtnsat.com/default.htm

[Casshew]

The only way it makes sense is if they are doing it to simply collect money, and I KNOW that they are doing that.

 

Well if you know that, I don't understand why you started the thread! :p

 

Everything is expensive on a ship, they get you coming and going...

[DeltaOne]

My husband is expecting his souped up Apple laptop to get here just a few weeks prior to sailing and informed me yesterday that we would be taking both laptops. Hmmm..... You know you are married to a geek when he "jokes" about putting a limit on the pairs of shoes I can pack but wants to take two laptops on vacation. Anything wrong with this picture?

As another Mac fanatic, it sounds like his priorities are just right! ;-)

[Capt_BJ]

it is actually more expensive to allow you to connect your computer to 'my' network than it is to let you use my computer.

 

I can tightly control configuration of 'my' computers. I can lock down the disk drives & USB ports to limit the probability of your introducing a virus to my net. I know what virus protection is being run and how often it is updated on my boxes.

 

Once I decide to let you connect your box, I need to up my network security several notches lest you infect my system. I need to isolate the part of the system you can connect to from everything else on the ship so that if you do damage, it is tightly constrained.... this costs money.

[Daniel1313]

I am planing on bringing my laptop along to be able to download pictures and check on kids back home. It has a wireless connection. Does anyone know how I would go about getting on the internet??? Do I have to go in the internet cafe when I want to use my computer or do I purchase something to be able to use my computer in my room???

 

Thanks

Dan

[negc]

One basic business fact that you need to understand. The price that a company charges for a product or service has little or no relationship to what it costs the company. The price depends on what customers are willing to pay for the product or service.

[PhillyCruiser]

I know that our mayor has made "free" wireless anywhere in Philly a priority of his second term in office. I wait with baited breath to find out how much the "free" wireless is going to cost all of us. Maybe some residents will receive the service for free, but that will be because other residents pay double or triple for it. I have been around long enough to cringe when our mayor says the word "free."

 

Joan

[rkdahl]

Does anyone know how I would go about getting on the internet??? Do I have to go in the internet cafe when I want to use my computer or do I purchase something to be able to use my computer in my room???

 

You have to purchase a prepaid wireless card at the pursers desk and then use the designated wireless areas of the ship, usually the atrium area to get your laptop on wireless. You cannot access the internet from your cabin.

[ggcruiser]

Did a little research and found out that it's bandwith that you'e paying for - as well as the fac that Wireless users can do things that others in the internet cafe can't (like download music, or send photos home from you laptop).

[AWOL]

Internet connections are not free to the shipping company. I work for a shipping company that uses satellites to connect to our ships. The equipment does not belong to the shipping company but is rented. Also once it is connected, you have to pay for the time usually by a set fee, depending on the bandwidth you wish to use, for the month so the shipping company has a constant cost. Like any other company that wants to stay in business, they have to forward the costs to the costumer. I think if this is not done with the companies we work for we would not be cruising because we would not have a job yet we expect Princess to just give use every thing for free. Strange isn’t

 

Regards

 

Roger

[Globaliser]

Maybe in an ideal world, that would be great. But I have an ill parent, and the only way I can get away is to stay in contact and make sure everything is fine.

Could you do that by phone and internet cafes? I don't take a laptop anywhere (I don't even own one) but I have no problems staying in touch whether from a ship or a shoreside holiday.

[Agfins]

I know absolutely nothing about computers but is it possible that charging for wi-fi might prevent people who are entitled to free internet access from sharing their free access more easily with friends who don't get it? It seems it would be a lot more obvious to have multiple people using one terminal in the cafe without logging off than passing around a laptop somewhere else or a card if that can be moved from laptop to laptop. Sorry if that sounds cynical but over the years we've seen many people trying to get something for nothing, the worst being a couple who argued at length with the purser on one cruise that they should be upgraded to a suite because they had noticed some rust on the hull outside their window while in port.

[Fuzzzy]

I am not sure if this relates totally to the internet question. However, I presume that Princess is using a satellite connection.

 

A few years back I needed a satellite connection for a business meeting. The charge (from one of the world's largest telecommunication's company) was $5,000 for one hour.

[SeaTeacher]

For me, the cost on a Princess ship is not the problem. The speed is halfway decent too when compared to 56K dialup. When compared to other lines, like Celebrity, Princess satellite and wireless access is cheap!

 

The problem appears when a passenger wants wireless access using a PDA. Princess' wireless acess is not open to a wireless PDA like my Dell Axim. It requires that a wireless machine be able to have two Iternet browser windows open simultaneously. A laptop can do that, but the limited resources of a compact mobile device cannot. I always prefer to travel with my PDA because it is so much smaller and lighter. I spent a month in Europe last year and was able to use wireless access in every major city (even a few small ones).

 

I can carry 2 gigs of music, store schedule and reservation info, photos too, and I can post on my blog or read E-books. All that flexibility on a pocket sized PDA! It's the BEST mobile computig device. But not on Princess. Their wireless access system is antiquated. I wish Princess would update their system. It's easily done and NOT expensive. It's just a software upgrade.

[Globaliser]

I am not sure if this relates totally to the internet question. However, I presume that Princess is using a satellite connection.

 

A few years back I needed a satellite connection for a business meeting. The charge (from one of the world's largest telecommunication's company) was $5,000 for one hour.

What annoys me most about cruise lines' charges for Internet access through the Internet cafe is that the ships are constantly connected to the satellite link anyway, as part of their business operations. Even if they didn't have Internet cafes or any other Internet facility for their passengers, they would still incur the cost of the open satellite link because the ship is in constant communication with head office. The charges that they make to pax for using the same Internet connection verge on the scandalous, when you take that fact into account.

[Coral]

Could you do that by phone and internet cafes? I don't take a laptop anywhere (I don't even own one) but I have no problems staying in touch whether from a ship or a shoreside holiday.

 

When I need daily contact - internet is the least inexpensive. Unfortunately, one is not in ports every day to use port internet cafes. For me, the best solution is either bringing my laptop with me or using the internet cafe's on the ship.

[spongerob]

What annoys me most about cruise lines' charges for Internet access through the Internet cafe is that the ships are constantly connected to the satellite link anyway, as part of their business operations. Even if they didn't have Internet cafes or any other Internet facility for their passengers, they would still incur the cost of the open satellite link because the ship is in constant communication with head office. The charges that they make to pax for using the same Internet connection verge on the scandalous, when you take that fact into account.

 

Princess is much cheaper than other lines, though, aren't they? I've heard Celebrity charges 90 cents per minute versus 35 cents on Princess. IF you want scandalous, let's talk about the price of bottled water.

[Pam in CA]

What annoys me most about cruise lines' charges for Internet access through the Internet cafe is that the ships are constantly connected to the satellite link anyway, as part of their business operations. Even if they didn't have Internet cafes or any other Internet facility for their passengers, they would still incur the cost of the open satellite link because the ship is in constant communication with head office. The charges that they make to pax for using the same Internet connection verge on the scandalous, when you take that fact into account.

It's my understanding that the ship's operations are completely separate from the passenger internet. Different satellite(s), much higher tech, and therefore, much more expensive. I bet that if they made the same communications system available to passengers, it would be far more expensive per minute than what is offered now. I'd rather have less-expensive albeit less reliable internet connection.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I've heard Celebrity charges 90 cents per minute versus 35 cents on Princess.

It's true Celebrity is much higher (I recall 75 cents a minute last year, but I could be wrong), BUT...on Celebrity, you can compose your emails in a word-type document for free and take all the time you want, as long as you are off the internet doing it. Also, you can set up a Celebrity email account where people can stay in touch with you, and you only pay for messages received and sent. So it really evens out for email.

 

But, the bottom line on internet (or any) pricing...you don't (shouldn't) price based on cost in a free trade society...you should always price based on demand. You could argue that internet on a ship is a monopoly, and that price should be based on cost as with other regulated monopolies, but that isn't really true, as you still have a choice of cruise line.

[Thanksforyourinfo]

Yes, it costs the ship to mantain the equipment, but hotels started supplying wi-fi for free, why? Some were trying to lure customers to them instead of the hotel across the street. The other ones had to follow suit. Cruise ships are full right now and aren't luring new customers too hard, so everything (liquor, soda, t-shirts, etc) costs alot, but if we keep filling out those satisfaction surveys and keep telling them that we want lower cost on certain items, eventually somebody will offer wi-fi for free, then the others will have to follow suit, same as hotels. Keep complaining, but expect it to take awhile.