Starlink on Beyond, a disappointment.

[Dk-cruiser]

Hi.

 

I've just returned from Beyond's sailing from Barcelona to Rome, and had high hopes for the new Starlink Internet. I have seen speedtest that shows over 100 Mbit/s posted on this forum.

Unfortunately the internet didn't felt much better than before. The speed maxed out around 2-3 Mbit/s, so my thought is that celebrity is limit the speed a lot. I talked with one of the officers, that told the speed was excellent the first week, but now slow as before. He mentioned that the first week even gaming was possible.

 

I had to do some Facetime calls (without video), but have to give up. The upload was suffering a lot, so every 30-45 second, the other person wasn't able to hear me.

 

This is quite a bummer for me. I know people have different expectations, but if you have to use it to work, it has to be stable. One thing i noted was the latency was improved, and around 50ms.

 

I'm wondering if Starlink is okay with this user experience, if Celebrity limit the speed so much? 

 

 

[Jeremiah1212]

Which package did you have? 

[NutsAboutGolf]

Did you have basic or premium?

[Dk-cruiser]

Premium. 

[sptrout]

As has been reported the past couple weeks, Starlink is having capacity problems even for land customers. They need a lot more satellites to correct capacity problems. Until they increase the number of satellites they will continue to have problems. I am surprised that RCG did not check these kinds of possible problems out before jumping in to a company wide change. It could be a long time before Starlink can correct capacity problems. I hope that RCG waits before converting anymore ships.

[Charles4515]

Just now, sptrout said:

As has been reported the past couple weeks, Starlink is having capacity problems even for land customers. They need a lot more satellites to correct capacity problems. Until they increase the number of satellites they will continue to have problems. I am surprised that RCG did not check these kinds of possible problems out before jumping in to a company wide change. It could be a long time before Starlink can correct capacity problems. I hope that RCG waits before converting anymore ships.

Elon is a "genius". A genius at overpromising. 

[canderson]

1 hour ago, Charles4515 said:

Elon is a "genius". A genius at overpromising. 

He's promised about 12X the number of birds currently in the constellation, and being in low Earth orbit, each covers a fairly small geographic area.  DOES take a while to deliver on 30,000 of them.  Launching 30,000 of anything into low earth orbit isn't a trivial exercise, and they're on schedule.  About 2,500 of them as of last week.  Until there are enough to provide contiguous geographic coverage, good service can't be available at all times/places.

 

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by canderson
typoz

[Arizona Wildcat]

The problem is Starlink and Elon.  They have promised far more capacity than capability.  Ukraine is using huge capacity. 

Some areas are better. 

[canderson]

10 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

The problem is Starlink and Elon.  They have promised far more capacity than capability.  Ukraine is using huge capacity. 

Some areas are better. 

Ukraine can only use what's above them, which represents a VERY small portion of the existing constellation.  You can't SEE most of them from Ukraine, much less tap the capacity of what you can't see.

 

Beyond that, how can you possibly judge the end product when only 8% of the planned number of Gen2 satellites are up yet? 

[dlh015]

7 minutes ago, canderson said:

Ukraine can only use what's above them, which represents a VERY small portion of the existing constellation.  You can't SEE most of them from Ukraine, much less tap the capacity of what you can't see.

 

Beyond that, how can you possibly judge the end product when only 8% of the planned number of Gen2 satellites are up yet? 

But it would seem they are selling at 'end product' prices...and the way they are marketing the Starlink product, they are setting themselves up to be judged...

 

ETA: Or will it be even more pricey as the optimal number of satellites are in place??

Edited October 3, 2022 by dlh015

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Seems we have a Musk shill...

 

Or maybe Musk himself?

 

LOL.

[canderson]

1 minute ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

Seems we have a Musk shill...

 

Or maybe Musk himself?

 

LOL.

Hardly.  Just someone with a necessarily intimate understanding of the technology, and no financial stake in it.  If you have contrary data, please elaborate.

[NutsAboutGolf]

It’s inevitable the internet cost will continue to rise; they would have done this even if they didn’t have a deal with Starlink.  The hope is the costs do not exponentially increase.

[steamboats]

Did they already install Starlink onboard Beyond?

 

My DH has been on the Freedom of the Seas two weeks ago which was the try out ship and it was excellent. We did a video call via WhatsApp. No problems at all.

 

steamboats

[LongStrangeTrip19]

I’m onboard the beyond now and have been nothing but satisfied with starlink. We have 4+ devices connected on the ship (iphones, iPads, and MacBook pros) and all are receiving 10mbps up/down anywhere we go on ship. We have tried all over the ship and have been extremely satisfied.

 

I work in tech and have been able to stream music, videos and do multiple zooms/FaceTime so far with and without a VPN. Is it possible there was an issue with your devices? I haven’t heard any complaints yet while onboard but most people complimenting the speed. 
 

NOT a musk shill. Was actually anticipating poor internet but have been presently surprised…

 

Edited October 4, 2022 by LongStrangeTrip19
Add photo of speed text from balcony of room while at port in ajeccio. Phone in airplane mode.

[verizon]

I have been on so many cruises.I cant be  more happy with the SpceX Starlink.

I sent 17 pictures in one time to family and it only took few seconds to complete.

We had 2200 passengers on board on 24th. sailing.

Edited October 4, 2022 by verizon

[Ipeeinthepools]

12 hours ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

The problem is Starlink and Elon.  They have promised far more capacity than capability.  Ukraine is using huge capacity. 

Some areas are better. 

I’m okay with Ukraine using as much capacity as they can get.  For my money they can even prioritize putting more satellites above Ukraine, they can use all the help they can get.

[mahdnc]

For comparison, here are some Wi-Fi speed measurements that I took using the Speedtest app on board Solstice (Jan 2020, Tasman Sea) and Reflection (Jan 2019, Caribbean Sea). Most of the measurements occurred on sea days. The two sailings were before Celebrity began splitting their Wi-Fi into basic and premium offerings. 

 

The result at the top of the photo was taken at an airport lounge.

 

[Charles4515]

Elon Musk jokes aside I would reserve judgement on Starlink onboard. Lets see what people think in six months. All I read in this thread is that one person making Facetime calls was disappointed. So on an iPhone or iPad, don't know what model.  There could have been hardware or software problems on the device or there could be just plain operator error. Or maybe OP was on when there were some network issues. We can't expect there never to be network issues. 

[mfs2k]

7 hours ago, LongStrangeTrip19 said:

I’m onboard the beyond now and have been nothing but satisfied with starlink. We have 4+ devices connected on the ship (iphones, iPads, and MacBook pros) and all are receiving 10mbps up/down anywhere we go on ship. We have tried all over the ship and have been extremely satisfied.

 

I work in tech and have been able to stream music, videos and do multiple zooms/FaceTime so far with and without a VPN. Is it possible there was an issue with your devices? I haven’t heard any complaints yet while onboard but most people complimenting the speed. 
 

NOT a musk shill. Was actually anticipating poor internet but have been presently surprised…

 

Hopeful your experience is representative of most people on board.

 

I'll be on Beyond in 3 weeks and will need a decent VPN connection with my laptop to do some work while on board. No video though

[sptrout]

A good article published this morning by PC Magazine (Internet version) that explains how much money Musk has spent to support Ukraine. $80M is being reported mainly for ground dishes so the folks on the ground can have some Internet connectivity. A large, unplanned for, number of dishes could seriously degrade throughput which is usually the real problem with digital communication systems. You can have all the signal strength in the world but if the backend cannot handle the data then the system can really slow down.

 

 https://www.pcmag.com/news/elon-musk-spacex-has-spent-80m-to-support-ukraine-with-starlink

 

[canderson]

I think there is some confusion by some about Starlink.  Unlike some previously used shipboard systems that used a geostationary belt of satellites around the equator, Starlink's satellites are all in constant motion in their own orbits around the Earth.  Which satellite is closest to you in a given moment is constantly changing.  Unless you're IN Ukraine, all the dishes you could possibly place there have zero impact on your throughput if you're somewhere else being served by different satellites and ground stations.

[Dk-cruiser]

11 hours ago, LongStrangeTrip19 said:

I’m onboard the beyond now and have been nothing but satisfied with starlink. We have 4+ devices connected on the ship (iphones, iPads, and MacBook pros) and all are receiving 10mbps up/down anywhere we go on ship. We have tried all over the ship and have been extremely satisfied.

 

I work in tech and have been able to stream music, videos and do multiple zooms/FaceTime so far with and without a VPN. Is it possible there was an issue with your devices? I haven’t heard any complaints yet while onboard but most people complimenting the speed. 
 

NOT a musk shill. Was actually anticipating poor internet but have been presently surprised…

 

 

Hi.

 

That's great news, and was just not the case for me last week. Speedtest.net's App was also blocked, but it looks like it works for you again. 

 

I'm using an iPhone 12 and also a Macbook Air M1, and the connection between my device, and the access point was excellent. I'm also working in tech, and would have been grateful for 13/9 Mbit/s on a ship, but as mentioned it was not the case, and it looked a lot like traffic shaping at Celebrity's end since the speed offered was pretty close to what you got before Starlink.

 

 

 

 

[Guest ldtr]

19 hours ago, canderson said:

Ukraine can only use what's above them, which represents a VERY small portion of the existing constellation.  You can't SEE most of them from Ukraine, much less tap the capacity of what you can't see.

 

Beyond that, how can you possibly judge the end product when only 8% of the planned number of Gen2 satellites are up yet? 

They planned for a number of satellites, then ran into reality where even the number of satellites launched have caused problems with other items in orbit, including the space station. Musk has demonstrated that he will ignore regulations when it suits him until he creates enough problems that the authorities move in and enforce limits. Too much the rules do not apply to him mindset.

[canderson]

3 minutes ago, ldtr said:

They planned for a number of satellites, then ran into reality where even the number of satellites launched have caused problems with other items in orbit, including the space station. 

The ISS averages ~400km altitude.  The Starlink constellation is ~550km altitude.  Unclear where the potential exists for direct conflict there. NASA and Starlink also have an agreement to reposition Starlink satellites that pose any threat to other NASA assets.

 

The astronomers have a better cause for complaint, though the top asteroid hunters know how to separate out the fields in their image analysis.