SpaceX’s Starlink Satellite Internet Coming to Cruise Ships | Smart News:

Cruise ships have generally gotten a bad rap for what to offer travelers slow and expensive Wi-Fi. But one cruise line is hoping to change that by deploying SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet.

Royal Caribbean, one of the world’s largest cruise operators, announced last week that it will deploy the SpaceX network on its entire fleet of passenger ships. This makes it the first cruise operator to sign an Internet deal with Elon Musk’s rocket and spaceship company. Royal Caribbean plans to begin installing the Starlink infrastructure immediately and hopes to complete the project by spring 2023. statement.

The cruise line’s decision comes after testing Starlink on one of its largest ships. Freedom of the seas, which received “overwhelmingly positive feedback from guests and staff,” according to a statement. In June, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave SpaceX the green light to provide Starlink to moving vehiclesincluding semi-trucks, RVs, airplanes and trucks, which paved the way for the company to offer Wi-Fi during the break-in.

Many cruise lines already use space-based Wi-Fi, but the satellites for those networks are much further from Earth than SpaceX. Placing themselves Starlink constellation In low Earth orbit, SpaceX aims to provide faster internet by reducing the distance that information must travel to reach the ground.

Since May 2019, SpaceX has created an interconnected network more than 2500 satellites. Its leaders say they have hope increase the mass to 42,000 satellites and provide internet worldwide. Starlink wants[rebuild] the Internet in space,” Musk said when he announced plans for the new service in 2015, according to reports. Space.comof Peter B. de Selding. As of May, Starlink had 400,000 subscribers in 36 countrieswith plans to expand.

However, the ambitious project did not pass without failures. in February, for example, a solar storm knocked 40 satellites out of orbit. And astronomers have complained about reflective satellites block out the night skywhile environmentalists have concerns about the company’s investment space debris and: climate change.

For now, Royal Caribbean cruise customers will only be able to use Starlink in coastal areas, as the service does not yet operate in the middle of the ocean, the report said. TechCrunchDevin Koldevin. Starlink hopes to add ocean service in the Northern Hemisphere by the end of 2022, then expand to the Southern Hemisphere early next year.

Despite this limitation, early testers of the service on board Freedom of the seas were impressed with the offer.

“We tried watching YouTube videos and Netflix shows to see how they would work,” wrote Nicole Feist. Royal Caribbean Blog, an unofficial fan blog not affiliated with the cruise line. “Both of them [Starlink] packs allowed us to start watching videos right away with no lag or buffering time.”

The cruise line hasn’t released any technical details about Starlink’s wider rollout, such as how much bandwidth will be split among thousands of passengers, so it remains to be seen how fast and reliable the service will be for cruise ships in the future. The Vergeof Mitchell Clark.

Starlink’s home internet service starts at $110 per month with optional basic hardware charge From $599. Ships at sea, by comparison, pay $5,000 per month and $10,000 in one-time hardware costs for two terminals.”Starlink Maritime“. Neither Royal Caribbean nor SpaceX has disclosed what the cruise line is paying for its Starlink service, but photos released by Royal Caribbean show six terminals installed in a small area on one of the company’s ships’ decks. :

In addition to cruise ships, SpaceX has also struck deals to enter the in-flight Wi-Fi business by partnering Hawaiian Airlines and: JSX:. So does Delta Air Lines tested the service in some of its aircraft, and SpaceX recently announced a partnership with T-Mobile to connect mobile phones to its network.

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