RC request for Starlink

[bobmacliberty]

1 hour ago, Ozark_Kid said:

@BecciBoo is showing the download speed.  Latency is response time which is the ping measurement you see on a speed test.  Download and upload speeds will go down when there is interference like rain/storm.

 

Technically, @RedIguana is correct.  Speed is how fast bits travel and really should be measured by latency.  The upload and download measures are actually bandwidth.  In reality though, up/download bandwidths are mentioned as "speed" because with you can push more bits through more bandwidth and it appears (and is) faster speed to an end user.

[twangster]

1 hour ago, Rewind said:

 

Was just at CocoCay and when we got onto the dock saw a thin cable running down from deck 4 to a small little telephone box on the pier.  Made sense later while sitting on the beach that both ships extend their network to CocoCay and CocoCay doesn't need it's own.

 

When they added the pier and the island became "Perfect Day" they had ships "plug" into the island to authenticate WiFi users and integrate billing systems so point of sale terminals were live.  No more paper tickets being entered manually in the hours after the ship left.   

 

During the shutdown they added a microwave link to another island in the Berry Island chain so the permanent employees that live on the island are connected that way.   You can see the tower at the tip of the island not too far from where the local ferry docks that transports transient day workers to the island.

 

When PDCC had its own O3b station and guests used that path it didn't implement the ship's per user bandwidth policy (4Mbps down, 2Mbps up) and we all got to see the true potential of O3b with throughput that rivalled some typical cable modems speeds in the 2019 era.  It was great!

 

When Royal last did a major internet upgrade in 2013 they did have the fastest internet at sea (back then).  Since that time the competition has invested into their internet platforms leaving Royal with the slowest internet at sea in current times.  Hopefully Starlink will be a technology upgrade to allow Royal to regain the lead but all need to be careful what we wish for.  It may come at a higher cost.

 

Royal can subscribe to higher throughput now with O3b.  Princess uses O3b as do some MSC ships.  They have better performance using the same technology leaving Royal with the slowest internet at sea.  That's a choice.

 

Starlink has its own speed challenges especially between 3pm and 10pm when it warns users speeds will be slower.  Additional satellites may help with that but they are adding more users so will that really change?  Time will tell.

 

One thing is for certain.  The Royal we all know will use this as a means to introduce new price points and potentially eliminate CAS discounts including free internet for Pinnacles and Royal Class Suites.  Time will tell.    

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, twangster said:

When PDCC had its own O3b station and guests used that path it didn't implement the ship's per user bandwidth policy (4Mbps down, 2Mbps up) and we all got to see the true potential of O3b with throughput that rivalled some typical cable modems speeds in the 2019 era.

In the early days of the O3B roll out, folks were routinely getting up to 25Mbps down on the ship - that didn't last long.

[mo&fran]

31 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

In the early days of the O3B roll out, folks were routinely getting up to 25Mbps down on the ship - that didn't last long.

Do  we really think the ship's wifi network can support the current usage,  since we are asked to rely on the app in place of the printed daily paper. 

On a recent cruise, with spring break folks on board, there were an awful lot of people walking around with the phones in their faces, and I don't think they were using the app for that. 

[Ozark_Kid]

1 hour ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Technically, @RedIguana is correct.  Speed is how fast bits travel and really should be measured by latency.  The upload and download measures are actually bandwidth.  In reality though, up/download bandwidths are mentioned as "speed" because with you can push more bits through more bandwidth and it appears (and is) faster speed to an end user.

I understand what you are saying.  They really both have an effect on how long it takes to download a large file like a movie etc.  If you had very fast speed, low latency, and very small bandwidth it could take longer to download a movie as compared to very high bandwidth and high latency, speed.  Most people want to know how long its going to take to download the movie.  Both bandwidth and latency makes a difference in how long/speed it will take.  

I just ran a speed test.   Ping 14.7 Download 108 mbps.  How long would you estimate a 1G file would take to download? 

 

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, mo&fran said:

Do  we really think the ship's wifi network can support the current usage,  since we are asked to rely on the app in place of the printed daily paper. 

They will likely adjust pricing to get to some optimal level of users. Use of the app should have a minimal affect on things as most of that traffic can probably stay on the ship (not need the sat connection). 

[five.]

I did not see it mentioned elsewhere. Here is the actual letter:

https://issuu.com/hochmania/docs/577819365-letter-to-fcc-fina

[smokeybandit]

4 hours ago, mo&fran said:

Do  we really think the ship's wifi network can support the current usage,  since we are asked to rely on the app in place of the printed daily paper. 

On a recent cruise, with spring break folks on board, there were an awful lot of people walking around with the phones in their faces, and I don't think they were using the app for that. 

Yes, the wifi network itself isn't the the issue. 

[bobmacliberty]

16 hours ago, Ozark_Kid said:

I understand what you are saying.  They really both have an effect on how long it takes to download a large file like a movie etc.  If you had very fast speed, low latency, and very small bandwidth it could take longer to download a movie as compared to very high bandwidth and high latency, speed.  Most people want to know how long its going to take to download the movie.  Both bandwidth and latency makes a difference in how long/speed it will take.  

I just ran a speed test.   Ping 14.7 Download 108 mbps.  How long would you estimate a 1G file would take to download? 

 

 

Completely agree. 

[BecciBoo]

On 6/15/2022 at 12:44 PM, twangster said:

How much do you pay?  🙂

Initial out put for the dish etc was $500 but we now pay $50 a month, then we pay for our services Hulu $15, already had Prime, Disney+ $5 and we are getting Philo which is my favorite for another $25 but with all that not counting the original $500, we are still saving $200 per month. We were using Directv through ATT service.  We had only 150gb before so I would run out of data on my PC before the month was up, and movies were a problem, now no worries with that. Todays spd test:

Edited June 17, 2022 by BecciBoo

[Ozark_Kid]

36 minutes ago, BecciBoo said:

Initial out put for the dish etc was $500 but we now pay $50 a month, then we pay for our services Hulu $15, already had Prime, Disney+ $5 and we are getting Philo which is my favorite for another $25 but with all that not counting the original $500, we are still saving $200 per month. We were using Directv through ATT service.  We had only 150gb before so I would run out of data on my PC before the month was up, and movies were a problem, now no worries with that. Todays spd test:

Did you get the $50 per month because you started with it early?  It wants to charge me $110 per month right now.

You might already know but you can bundle Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ for $14 per month. 

[RedIguana]

19 hours ago, Ozark_Kid said:

Most people want to know how long its going to take to download the movie.

I'm a gamer. Contrary to popular opinion, the online gaming I do (WOW) uses very little bandwidth, especially compared to video. Speed (latency) is all that matters. I need my 20 kb every 65 ms (actual latency to final server, not the latency to closest ISP server), not 4 mb  every 2000 ms.

[BecciBoo]

3 hours ago, Ozark_Kid said:

Did you get the $50 per month because you started with it early?  It wants to charge me $110 per month right now.

You might already know but you can bundle Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ for $14 per month. 

Yes, that's the $14.99 per month thing I talked about.  It includes Paramount too.  And we have Prime with our Prime membership. 

 

 But we payed our reservation ($500) for Starlink a year ago at least.  We've had it for 1 month.  So I suppose it was an initial offer.

Edited June 17, 2022 by BecciBoo

[BeginnercruiserHD]

On 6/15/2022 at 10:05 AM, Ozark_Kid said:

I understand that.  I guess the better way to ask, how far off shore can FCC rule over a cruise ship. 

FCC regulates which radio bands, frequencies and what type of information is used in what.  That's why.

Edited June 17, 2022 by BeginnercruiserHD

[BecciBoo]

OK Kid, I lied, completely wrong, you were right.  Last year when we did our $500 reservation talk was that it would be $50 a month, but Todd told me last night we are indeed paying $110 per month.  Sorry ya'll.  My bad!

[Ozark_Kid]

3 hours ago, BecciBoo said:

OK Kid, I lied, completely wrong, you were right.  Last year when we did our $500 reservation talk was that it would be $50 a month, but Todd told me last night we are indeed paying $110 per month.  Sorry ya'll.  My bad!

No problem.   Even at $110 and some  subscriptions would bet Suddenlink. They charge over $200 for cable and 100m internet.   Even if it was breakeven I would switch.   They don't treat loyal customers as well as new.  Not enough competition in rural areas.

[zoepipes]

Every time I scan the boards and see this post, I see "RC Requests for Shrink" - 😆

[BecciBoo]

All I can say is, we are very satisfied and happy with Starlink.

[gmerick]

Approved:

IB Grants SpaceX and Kepler Earth Station In Motion Authorizations

 

[mo&fran]

1 hour ago, gmerick said:

Approved:

IB Grants SpaceX and Kepler Earth Station In Motion Authorizations

 

sounds like it might be good news, we'll have to see how it works with thousands of connections.

[deliver42]

Now it's up to Royal to make a deal with Musk, and then see how much Royal is going to charge for this.

[RedIguana]

On 7/1/2022 at 6:28 PM, deliver42 said:

Now it's up to Royal to make a deal with Musk, and then see how much Royal is going to charge for this.

Looks like Starlink has business class antennas with a 150-500 Mbps at $500 a month. From what I can gather from my limited internet searches, even the low end, that is more continuous bandwidth than  most ships are using. I did see a test record or 2.25 or so Gbps (I think was SES new MEO). I suspect they can parallel multiple antennas for raw bandwidth and redundancy. No clue how to optimize all that though. Either way, it should be much cheaper than currently for more bandwidth. Hopefully the service will improve and become less expensive or no charge. Until everyone wants to stream 4K.....

[Biker19]

1 minute ago, RedIguana said:

Looks like Starlink has business class antennas with a 150-500 Mbps at $500 a month.

I have a feeling RCI would be paying a lot more than that. Also if you saw the pic of the install on Freedom, they have at least 10 antennae installed, so that is no simple business solution.

[RedIguana]

7 minutes ago, RedIguana said:

I suspect they can parallel multiple antennas for raw bandwidth and redundancy.

 

3 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

I have a feeling RCI would be paying a lot more than that. Also if you saw the pic of the install on Freedom, they have at least 10 antennae installed, so that is no simple business solution.

Well, 10 looks like the magic number. Were those the round antennae or the rectangular?

[Biker19]

10 minutes ago, RedIguana said:

Were those the round antennae or the rectangular?

You can see them in the background in this video - I think they are mirrored on the starboard side as well: