The Cruise giant, Carnival Corporation announced on January 18th that it is adding SpaceX’s Starlink Satcom service to its fleet. Internet connectivity is increasingly being perceived as a necessity rather than a luxury on Cruises and companies in the industry such as Royal Caribbean and Hurtigruten have already opted for the service. Last year Royal Caribbean tested Starlink services on its vessel, FREEDOM OF THE SEAS, and later announced deployment of Starlink network across its entire fleet.
Carnival’s ships had sustained internet slowdowns on several voyages only in the last year. There had been speculation that Carnival would follow in Royal Caribbean’s footsteps and opt for Starlink. Carnival Cruise Line and AIDA Cruises will be the first of Carnival’s subsidiaries to feature Starlink services.
Starlink provides its internet through Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellites, which circle the earth on orbits as low as 350 miles above sea level. Due to the reduced distance, the latency in its internet connections is in the 30-40 milliseconds range, rivaling that of cable internet performance on land. 100-300 Mbps bandwidth is achievable per antenna pair, and with multiple antenna pairs the speed and the volume of data required on cruise ships can be easily achieved.
An investment in good internet connections pays its dividends rather quickly for cruise operators. Not only does it increase passenger satisfaction significantly, but it also helps the cruise liner in the form of free advertisement when passengers take to social media to post pics and updates regarding their cruise.
The opinions expressed herein are the author’s and not necessarily those of News2Sea.
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