Carnival Announces WiFi@Sea - Which Ships Get It First?

[Mr305]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/carnival-corporation-unveils-cruise-industrys-first-hybrid-wireless-network-at-sea-2014-11-03?reflink=MW_news_stmp

[Spaniel Lover]

I hope it's better than the hybrid network that Norwegian Cruise Line uses on Norwegian Getaway. It's a similar idea... the one they use on Norwegian Getaway uses a satellite connection when the ship is out at sea, and then switches over to some kind of wireless point-to-point connection when the ship is within visual range of towers installed in some of the ports the ship visits.

 

I've cruised on Norwegian Getaway and extensively tested their hybrid Internet service. It wasn't anything to get too excited about. Yes, it was blazing fast when the ship was within visual range of the tower... or when the ship was in port... but once the ship got out to sea, it was the same old slow satellite connection we've all been frustrated with.

 

Take a look at

, demonstrating how well (or not) the system works when the ship is in port and again when the ship is at sea.

 

The problem of the whole idea is that passengers don't usually want to use the Internet very much when the ship is in port. When the ship is in port, most passengers are off the ship... having fun! When you want to use the Internet is when the ship is at sea... and in the case of NCL's hybrid network, provided by MTN Communications, the service was quite slow when the ship was at sea.

 

So, if Carnival's big announcement is basically that they're going to employ the same kind of hybrid network that is found on the Norwegian Getaway... I'm not very excited by the news. On the other hand, if there's more to it than the hybrid network NCL is using... I'd love to hear about it.

 

If having a blazing fast Internet connection during a cruise is important to you... the ships you should be looking at are Royal Caribbean's Allure Of The Seas and Oasis Of The Seas. They are the first to have the new technology developed by O2B Networks... involving an entirely new technology of low-orbit satellites that actually track the cruise ship, rather than the dish on the cruise ship tracking the satellite. It's a revolutionary technology, from what I can tell... providing a blazing fast Internet connection during every minute of the cruise, no matter how far out at seas the ship is... and I can't wait to try it out myself and report back to the Cruise Critic community about it later this month.

[amyh13]

I actually do a good bit of surfing/posting in/near port. Quick photo to facebook while hanging out waiting to leave port. Same when coming in.

 

 

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[crewsweeper]

Based on the linked article and others I read, it does appear that the satellite system is at least partially dedicated to Carnival but it's hard to tell if it's what RCCL uses or not. Guess those passengers sailing on Caribbean cruises over the holidays and new year can give us some feedback. I did notice they didn't say anything about pricing being cheaper.:confused:

[klfrodo]

It's still only lipstick on a pig.

 

Current speeds are approximately 250 kilo bytes per second which bandwidth is shared by 1000 guests.

So, they're saying up to 10X faster??? Big deal, that's still only 2.5 Mega bytes per second,, still shared by 1000 guests.

 

I highly doubt that the normal passenger will experience any difference at all. Except a higher price maybe.

 

I'm not saying that this is bad or that improvements are not needed and or required.

All I'm saying is Carnival,,, don't pat yourself on the back on this one. Don't puff out your chest. In fact, don't release the information. Just improve the product a little at a time and move on. This "10X faster" thing and being proud of it can be seen as a desperate move for attention.

[ICF]

Wonder what the cost will be? We will be on the Liberty next February and it might be nice to have.

[jimbo5544]

It's still only lipstick on a pig.

 

 

 

Current speeds are approximately 250 kilo bytes per second which bandwidth is shared by 1000 guests.

 

So, they're saying up to 10X faster??? Big deal, that's still only 2.5 Mega bytes per second,, still shared by 1000 guests.

 

 

 

I highly doubt that the normal passenger will experience any difference at all. Except a higher price maybe.

 

 

 

I'm not saying that this is bad or that improvements are not needed and or required.

 

All I'm saying is Carnival,,, don't pat yourself on the back on this one. Don't puff out your chest. In fact, don't release the information. Just improve the product a little at a time and move on. This "10X faster" thing and being proud of it can be seen as a desperate move for attention.

 

 

Yeah, they should probably not announce any improvement cuz it's all junk.....like how you pass judgement before anyone has experienced it.

 

 

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