O Schedule for Starlink upgrade?

[Aloha 1]

With Vista launching with Starlink this week, does anyone know what the installation schedule is for Riviera, Marina, and the rest of the fleet?

[Snaefell3]

Before one and all get too excited about StarLink, the important question is "how much will StarLink charge for bandwidth?"

 

The O3b medium Earth orbit satellites were a great improvement because their operating costs (and hence what they charged ships) was much lower than the legacy GEO orbit satellites.  StarLink is enough different than MEO- or GEO-orbit satellites that I'm in the hope-but-wait-and-see camp.

[pinotlover]

The amount of bandwidth available is different than the amount any cruise line chooses to pay for and offer to guests.

 

The “offer to guests “ part is the part I’m waiting to experience. The other doesn’t matter.

Edited May 9, 2023 by pinotlover

[Snaefell3]

Yup...  *IF* you mean "how much is on offer by the satellite companies".

 

The cost per MB/S of satellite uplink greatly affects the " 'offer to guests' " part, no?  ;^)  My point was that we really don't know where StarLink's uplink rates will settle yet, so we don't know how breathless to be.

[pinotlover]

17 minutes ago, Snaefell3 said:

Yup...  *IF* you mean "how much is on offer by the satellite companies".

 

The cost per MB/S of satellite uplink greatly affects the " 'offer to guests' " part, no?  ;^)  My point was that we really don't know where StarLink's uplink rates will settle yet, so we don't know how breathless to be.

I’ll bypass the term “ bait and switch “, but I clearly see the potential of what we experience on the newly introduced Vista, for some period, being different from what happens fleet wide over a longer period in this regard.

[Snaefell3]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

I’ll bypass the term “ bait and switch “, but I clearly see the potential of what we experience on the newly introduced Vista, for some period, being different from what happens fleet wide over a longer period in this regard.

"Bait and switch"?  Nah.

 

Just a matter of it's gonna take a bit for the uplink market to settle after a new entrant, plus StarLink is still pricing off hoped-for costs, not actual.

 

Enjoy the Vista!    ::mutter, mutter, you lucky dog, cuss, cuss::  ;^p

[Aloha 1]

Ok, so interesting conversation BUT does not answer my question as to what the schedule for installation is. Anyone else ?

[bob brown]

The IT guy aboard the Insignia about 2 months ago, told me that Oceania would be the last of the three NCLH lines to convert to Starlink, so it may be a year or so …🙁

[bob brown]

10 hours ago, pinotlover said:

The amount of bandwidth available is different than the amount any cruise line chooses to pay for and offer to guests.

 

The “offer to guests “ part is the part I’m waiting to experience. The other doesn’t matter.

I just read a post on the AQV board, that did a “speedtest” aboard the Starlink equipped American Empress riverboat, and achieved 20 MPS both upload and download.

And BTW, internet on AQV is included to all, in the base fare.🙂

[mexicobob]

32 minutes ago, bob brown said:

I just read a post on the AQV board, that did a “speedtest” aboard the Starlink equipped American Empress riverboat, and achieved 20 MPS both upload and download.

And BTW, internet on AQV is included to all, in the base fare.🙂

For those of us, maybe, technologically behind the times.............is 20 MPS good, bad, fast??? 

[bob brown]

1 hour ago, mexicobob said:

For those of us, maybe, technologically behind the times.............is 20 MPS good, bad, fast??? 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-mbps-can-you-do-20-download-speed-myspeed-gospeed#:~:text=In general%2C 20 Mbps%2Fper,for 1 or 2 devices.

[PaulMCO]

NCL uses the worse EMC Geo sats. Starlink will definitely be an improvement -- however and it is a big if they will need to manage the access as they currently do with one login per stateroom.  Otherwise the benefits of increase capacity will disappear. 

 

Those that have been original users of Starlink (like myself) have seen the degradation of service cause by more users using the fixed bandwidth of the ground based nodes.

 

RSSC Explorer just refitted with Starlink.

Edited May 10, 2023 by PaulMCO

[Sthrngary]

My question is not a Starlink question however it is an internet/streaming question.  I thought this would be a good place to ask instead of creating a new stream.  Here is the questions.

 

It is my understanding that regardless of which stateroom category, you receive on device unlimited internet (Non-Streaming).  Therefore every on the ship amenity is on device?

 

It seams you can upgrade that one device to streaming for an additional amount daily?

 

It also seems you can upgrade your stateroom to two devices to unlimited or streaming again at an additional cost? 

 

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[LHT28]

45 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

It is my understanding that regardless of which stateroom category, you receive on device unlimited internet (Non-Streaming).  Therefore every on the ship amenity is on device?

 

It seams you can upgrade that one device to streaming for an additional amount daily?

 

It also seems you can upgrade your stateroom to two devices to unlimited or streaming again at an additional cost? 

 

. 

Yes    to both

Just scroll down to Internet package  details

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/value

[Snaefell3]

14 hours ago, bob brown said:

I just read a post on the AQV board, that did a “speedtest” aboard the Starlink equipped American Empress riverboat, and achieved 20 MPS both upload and download.

And BTW, internet on AQV is included to all, in the base fare.🙂

Knowing what everyone else aboard was doing at the time is crucial to a speedtest's credibility.  Your and everyone else's traffic is merged on the ship's uplink, which is a choke point.  3am will give you delightful speed.

 

That said, TV-quality audio+video takes 5Mb/s.   (by convention, "b" is bits and "B" is 8-bit bytes).

[bob brown]

7 hours ago, Snaefell3 said:

Knowing what everyone else aboard was doing at the time is crucial to a speedtest's credibility.  Your and everyone else's traffic is merged on the ship's uplink, which is a choke point.  3am will give you delightful speed.

 

That said, TV-quality audio+video takes 5Mb/s.   (by convention, "b" is bits and "B" is 8-bit bytes).

Good point!

Fact is, in most places on riverboat cruises, you can also use your cell service, so perhaps not a good comparison…🤷‍♂️

[Aloha 1]

And so I conclude that nobody knows what the actual schedule is for the Starlink upgrade on O ships.  I understand the science from this who posted about usage, pipeline, etc., but the "proof in the pudding"  is  after it's installed and real life tested. So, Unless anyone has actual knowledge of the install schedule, I'll leave you to your bandwidth discussions.

(Full disclosure, I spent 17 years working for Honeywell and Digital in a previous life)

Edited May 13, 2023 by Aloha 1

[slw207693]

Just got on Vista today in Civitavecchia and while we are still docked, internet seems lightening fast compared to Riviera which we were on three days ago.   Seems that each cabin person gets a log in, on the basic plan I seem able to stream tic tok.  I will try to do speed test and report numbers shortly

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, slw207693 said:

 Seems that each cabin person gets a log in, on the basic plan

Are you saying that  both people in the cabin get their own account ??