Re:The Container Ship Tourism Industry
by eliben on Tuesday August 11, 2015 @09:41AM
(#10040947)
Realistically, would a satellite internet connection be prohibitively expensive for non-data-heavy browsing for a couple of weeks (meaning no Youtube, just programmer-work related Google/Wikipedia/StackOverflow, etc)?
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:The Container Ship Tourism Industry
by kybernetyk on Tuesday August 11, 2015 @09:52AM
(#10041021)
>prohibitively
Yup. According to http://www.groundcontrol.com/IsatHub.htm and http://www.groundcontrol.com/BGAN_rate_plans.htm 50mb will cost you around $400. (Just a quick search but when I researched this a little more in depth a few years ago prices weren't too different from that). + the modem which is ~$2000 IIRC.
Of course this is if you would buy the data for yourself. Though quiet a few ships have sat internet installed. The data rates are usually pretty low so it's good enough for email but not for surfing bloated websites like Stackoverflow or Google.
And then there's the alternative of 3G/4G GSM when you're near the shore.
Nearly all cruise ships currently charge for Internet access by the minute, not the bit, and throughput can vary widely. Typical prices start around $1/minute and with bulk minute purchases, may get down to $0.30/min.
This is starting to change, with some now offering unlimited connectivity for ~$15-30/day.