Awful Internet Service

[LaJollaCruiser]

I'm wondering why, oh why, Carnival can't improve its Internet service. It is so slow that I can't even post photos on Facebook because Facebook times out. You'd think for the astronomical fees Carnival charges, they'd offer a decent service or simply discontinue it and not have to be embarrassed.

[Purvis1231]

It does seem that in the 21st century there is better technology that the cruise line could use but maybe they do not want people online too much.

[iamsteph]

They're working on it. They've rolled out a new service on a couple of ships, and are expected to eventually have it on most, if not all, ships, I think. I used it on the Freedom and it was much faster than the old service and much more economical.

[JLee1973]

There is a new service being ruled out slowly fleetwide.

[bassmaster150]

I'm wondering why, oh why, Carnival can't improve its Internet service. It is so slow that I can't even post photos on Facebook because Facebook times out. You'd think for the astronomical fees Carnival charges, they'd offer a decent service or simply discontinue it and not have to be embarrassed.

 

Well you are in the middle of the ocean, and the service is a satellite based service. There is only so much bandwidth that is available on a satellite link, and with hundreds of people sharing that bandwidth at any given time, it is going to be slow...this is unlike the dedicated line that you probably have to your home. At some point the technology will improve, but it will probably never get close to what you experience on land.

[SMSACE6]

They're working on it. They've rolled out a new service on a couple of ships, and are expected to eventually have it on most, if not all, ships, I think. I used it on the Freedom and it was much faster than the old service and much more economical.

 

Agree, I used it on Freedom also, and found it to be acceptable.

[Swampbaby]

I had the Social Media plan on the Sunshine and posted pictures with no problems. In fact, the only problem I encountered was logging onto Carnival.com which is always free. Could not get on carnival.com until we purchased the $16 per day plan for one day in order to handle some other business.

[Podna's]

I'm wondering why, oh why, Carnival can't improve its Internet service. It is so slow that I can't even post photos on Facebook because Facebook times out. You'd think for the astronomical fees Carnival charges, they'd offer a decent service or simply discontinue it and not have to be embarrassed.

 

 

They are improving it and it's getting very good reviews. The service and prices are much better. And I doubt Carnival is too embarrassed with the Internet service on a cruise ship.

[kybluecruiser]

This is a industry wide problem not just carnival. All the major cruise lines are trying to figure out something that works. Royal Caribbean is trying a new system on quantum of the seas i believe. Then carnival has their new system they are trying. So hopefully it will get better for the whole industry now.

[love my grandkids]

This is a industry wide problem not just carnival. All the major cruise lines are trying to figure out something that works. Royal Caribbean is trying a new system on quantum of the seas i believe. Then carnival has their new system they are trying. So hopefully it will get better for the whole industry now.

 

One can hope. In December going to Hawaii we had three days in a row with no service.:(:(

 

Hard to believe that with technology improving the way it is they are still struggling with this.

[Artemus]

I was on the Carnival Pride a few months ago and the connection was so slow, I finally gave up.

[RDC1]

A major part of the issue is basic physics. The biggest issue is latency, not bandwidth. Because a cruise ship uses internet via satellites the latency is significantly longer then on a land based internet connection. Satellite latency is 683 milliseconds. This is about 20 times longer then in a land based connection. This is due to the travel time of the signal from the ship, to the satellite, back to earth. The connection then has to deal with the normal internet latency.

 

This is important because of how network communications work. A number of packets are sent, the receiving PC acknowledges, then more packets are sent. The latency determines how fast that handshaking process can occur. A lot of work is done to try and minimize the impact, but it is there and pretty much always will be.

 

As a result ship internet is not as fast as land and cannot be as long as it depends upon satellites and the resulting latency. In can have plenty of bandwidth, but individual connection latency not so much.

 

This article compares speeds of different access methods.

 

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/02/satellite-internet-faster-than-advertised-but-latency-still-awful/

Edited February 26, 2015 by RDC1

[LostPuppy]

I think many people do not have a clue as to what's involved:

 

• Satellite transponder lease costs are approx 2 million/year (2012) for a 10 Mb connection. A bit faster than a typical home internet speed.
   
  
• Combine that with equipment costs (that big plastic dome on top of the ship, the tracking antenna that's in it, receivers, amps, wiring, the WiFi hotspots, personnel costs, etc.), that's probably another million. Now divide the 10 Mb connection and the costs by the number of people sharing.
  

 

$2,000,000 / 52 weeks = $38K/week. Assume 20% of the passengers use internet, 4000 x 20% = 800 people.

 

$38,000 / 800 people = $50 per week in costs, infrastructure support would probably be another $15 week making total weekly cost of $65. Assume a 11% markup for profit = $72 per week

 

10 Mb/sec / 800 people = 12.5K connect speed.

 

So there ya go. You would pay $72 per week for a 12.5K connect speed.

 

You can fudge my numbers however you like, but internet in the middle of the ocean is not and probably will never be cheap or fast.

[bar1068]

I think many people do not have a clue as to what's involved:

 

• Satellite transponder lease costs are approx 2 million/year (2012) for a 10 Mb connection. A bit faster than a typical home internet speed.
   
  
• Combine that with equipment costs (that big plastic dome on top of the ship, the tracking antenna that's in it, receivers, amps, wiring, the WiFi hotspots, personnel costs, etc.), that's probably another million. Now divide the 10 Mb connection and the costs by the number of people sharing.
  

 

$2,000,000 / 52 weeks = $38K/week. Assume 20% of the passengers use internet, 4000 x 20% = 800 people.

 

 

$38,000 / 800 people = $50 per week in costs, infrastructure support would probably be another $15 week making total weekly cost of $65. Assume a 11% markup for profit = $72 per week

 

10 Mb/sec / 800 people = 12.5K connect speed.

 

So there ya go. You would pay $72 per week for a 12.5K connect speed.

 

You can fudge my numbers however you like, but internet in the middle of the ocean is not and probably will never be cheap or fast.

 

Agreed...most don't have a clue...but why let the lack of knowledge regarding technical facts get in the way of making more complaints against Carnival...

[cruise_girl2002]

shoot, sometimes the internet is quicker on the ship than what I have at home.

[RDC1]

I think many people do not have a clue as to what's involved:

 

• Satellite transponder lease costs are approx 2 million/year (2012) for a 10 Mb connection. A bit faster than a typical home internet speed.
   
  
• Combine that with equipment costs (that big plastic dome on top of the ship, the tracking antenna that's in it, receivers, amps, wiring, the WiFi hotspots, personnel costs, etc.), that's probably another million. Now divide the 10 Mb connection and the costs by the number of people sharing.
  

 

$2,000,000 / 52 weeks = $38K/week. Assume 20% of the passengers use internet, 4000 x 20% = 800 people.

 

$38,000 / 800 people = $50 per week in costs, infrastructure support would probably be another $15 week making total weekly cost of $65. Assume a 11% markup for profit = $72 per week

 

10 Mb/sec / 800 people = 12.5K connect speed.

 

So there ya go. You would pay $72 per week for a 12.5K connect speed.

 

You can fudge my numbers however you like, but internet in the middle of the ocean is not and probably will never be cheap or fast.

 

While your post does a good job indicating the type of costs involved. You allocated bandwidth as if everyone was connected all of the time. In reality only a small number of the internet users are online at any given time. So available bandwidth for any particular user and any given time is much higher then your indicated 12.5k.

 

Another issue is that web sites are now designed with the assumption of very high bandwidth and low latency. So even if the ships improve their service the demand by each user is going up faster. When people were using access primarily for e-mail and other activities with limited demands they did not experience many problems. Not even getting into people trying to download videos, making internet phone calls, etc, even things like uploading pictures have changed. A few years ago a picture might be a couple of hundred kb. Today with 16 megapixel camera's a single picture is in the 3-4 megabyte range. An increase of 20-30 times in size.

[Artemus]

The internet on the ships reminds me of the old AOL dialup back in the 90s. I don't need fast internet at sea, I just need internet that works at a reasonable speed. Heck, I would even take slow, but what I've experienced recently is slower than slow.

[Havingfun2010]

Did you know.....areas of our country still have to use dial-up? So until the cost of equipment comes down, or enough people are willing to do daily facebook updates, this will be an issue on ships.

[kteachcruiser52]

We took the middle $60 package on the Freedom in January. I could not believe how much better the new internet is than the old one. I think I read it is being rolled out on 2 more ships this month and is expected to be fleet wide by the end of the year.

[theriac]

I'm wondering why, oh why, Carnival can't improve its Internet service. It is so slow that I can't even post photos on Facebook because Facebook times out. You'd think for the astronomical fees Carnival charges, they'd offer a decent service or simply discontinue it and not have to be embarrassed.

 

your post reminds me of this funny comedy bit by Louis C.K. and its about wifi on a plane. Here is a link if you want to watch it. The bit starts at 3:53. Also Language is NOT SAFE FOR WORK or KIDS

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRnzZZw84v0

[ray98]

They are rolling out new stuff that will be better but at the end of the day you are using a satellite system in the middle of the ocean....it will never be cheap or blazing fast.