Offshore Internet

C

Capt. Bill1

Active member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
RO Number
2017
Messages
6,127
Currently 5 miles off the West coast of Costa Rica heading from Tambor to the marina at Papagayo taking the boss to meet his sportfish boat at an up coming billfish tournament and we are enjoying Internet on the way thanks to Billy III, Alan Spicer at “Alan Spicer Marine" and the Ericsson W35.

The Ericsson, as some of you know, uses a cell SIM card for the Internet connection. And I have to say we are very impressed with it so far. Great signal strength and I don't even have the external antenna mounted outside on the arch yet.

I can now highly recommend this unit as a way to get Internet up and down any coast with cell coverage. You can even plug a hard drive into it and/or printer and share files and the printer.

Thanks Billy and Alan for the advice and help.
 
You forgot to mention the plus you get to use the phone number that you pay for with a data plan! I have had very good results with mine on both voice and data.
Bill
 
Put an external antenna up and you'll really be amazed. I've had 3 years of cell coverage in Great Sale on our trips. For a cruising boat, cell/mobile seems to me to be more reliable than Wi-Fi. (sorry Bill L. - I love the Rogue, but we're almost done with our trip and this last marina in Fort Lauderdale is the first place we've had enough signal to use it....I've been on Verizon for the most of the time). I still love the unit though.
 
Nothing to be sorry about Mixman (Kurt), I think Pascal and Captain Bill will both agree WiFi is for when you are stationary as in at the dock or anchored and in range and cellular based systems are for when you are mobile. Larger boats and Cruisers that want to stay connected should have both.
Then there is a 3rd option for LRC's that cross oceans or are in very remote areas, Satphones but the pricing is insane in my opinion.
Bill
 
Yeah, the antenna will go up on the arch when we get back. For now I've just got it wedged near one of the wheel house windows and the signal is still great.

The boss's new, to him, 140' will have SAT Internet. And no matter how you do it it ain't cheap. But at least there are ways to control the billing so crew, guests and charterers can pay as they use it. And it just doesn't get lumped into one big bill.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Billylll
Satphones but the pricing is insane in my opinion.
Bill

Click to expand...


You can sure say that again. I'm still on the Globalstar $25/month unlimited plan which gets me 9k of internet when needed. I'm going to keep that until they take it from my cold dead hands :-) (Bill L., I know they screwed you, but their network is much better now and should be back to 100% in another 12 months or so)
 
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