My wife and I require internet and phone service for our work access while off-shore realizing we will need to add an antenna and components. Please provide suggestions on providers and experience. Thank-you in advance
Internet and telephone while off-shore in Canadian Pacific Northwest
- Thread starter dchipley
- Start date
While your ability to use the internet will vary depending on where you sail, equipment you use, and the service you select the person I follow on these matters internet connectivity is Steve Mitchell. His website is SeaBits .
Crossing over into BC from the Puget Sound, Sailing in the lower Georgia Strait I have found T-Mobile to be a good provider.
Crossing over into BC from the Puget Sound, Sailing in the lower Georgia Strait I have found T-Mobile to be a good provider.
Define offshore.
Sailing along the coast isn't that.
Cell service is short range really meant for land use.. Mountains cause serious problems.
You can anchor in a sound up the.coast and have no service.. motor out into the strait and have a signal. It's more or less line of sight.
How fast internet ? How often would you need it ?
Satellite is the only real solution for land like service.
Sailing along the coast isn't that.
Cell service is short range really meant for land use.. Mountains cause serious problems.
You can anchor in a sound up the.coast and have no service.. motor out into the strait and have a signal. It's more or less line of sight.
How fast internet ? How often would you need it ?
Satellite is the only real solution for land like service.
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Sailing around Campbell River and north cell/internet service will be a hit and miss example 15 miles east no service but then go 1 mile south of this point service. So if you need service as stated before Starlink is the way to go.
Please define "while off-shore". Are you crossing oceans? Where exactly will you be?
dj
We've used Verizon International wireless service (Telus cell partnership) for years into British Columbia and coverage is pretty good following the Inside Passage route band used by cruise ships and other commercial vessels. Once you wander outside that band, especially in the Broughton Archipelago area, some the Discovery Islands, Ocean Falls and deep inlets and fiords on the mainland side, coverage is very spotty and in many cases non-existent. Typically, wireless companies provide tower coverage near populated areas where they get usage. Just not worth the money to install/maintain an expensive cell tower where nobody lives.
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And that’s why we go there to explore the wilderness. No cell phones allowed.
There are those times when boat or body breaks down and reliable communication comes in handy.
Handy does not equate to necessity. However, after losing a prop near Pierre’s Echo Bay in 2019, I vowed I would never go without some form of communication no matter where we cruised. Santa brought a Zoleo Satellite Communicator that Christmas.
If that were the only requirement I'd stick with my Garmin InReach. $65/$50/mo for unlimited text messages to anyone, automatic breadcrumbs to a website where I can be tracked, (and a big SOS button that'll contact the cops to come arrest me and put me in a safe jail cell instead of an unsafe sinking boat! ;-p )
I joke, but InReach plus a good EPIRB with AIS is all I feel that I *need* for comms for "safety beyond coastal waters". I'm curious how well T-Mobile will work on the waters around Nova Scotia and down the USA East Coast, and beyond, when I'm within sight of land.... I'd like to be able to download decent weather info, but I'm not convinced that STlINK is the only way--certainly not at $2500 + $250/mo for a measly 50gb of data! That 50gb *hard cap* makes STlINK a non-starter as anything remotely like an emergency tool. Especially since you will burn through that FIRST, even if on land using the ostensible "unlimited inland data". Elon obviously doesn't expect it to be an emergency communication tool, and IMHO we would be stupid to use it as such, especially as the primary/only one on board! ;-)
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I don't know where you get the $2500. You can use the small antenna that costs a lot less (don't recall, under $1k for sure). You can also use the $150 per month rate with a opt in for marine use (not sure how that's done, but lots of folk are doing it). I'm using the $250 per month as that allows world-wide coverage. The world is broken up in zones according to Starlink. If you are not changing zones, you don't need the $250 per month version... But, no matter, it's still expensive...
dj
starlink.com/boats $2500 for the equipment, $250 per month with only 50 Gb of data, which, according to TOS gets used FIRST, regardless of where you are, and then if you’re out at sea, you get nothing, even if you used up your 50 GB of data INLAND!
I would love to see where it’s written on an official star link page that I can get the $150 per month plan, with the cheap antenna, and have it work on a boat. Reading the specs for the cheap antenna, it’s only rated IP 45. The $2500 boat antenna is rated IP 56.
I would love to see where it’s written on an official star link page that I can get the $150 per month plan, with the cheap antenna, and have it work on a boat. Reading the specs for the cheap antenna, it’s only rated IP 45. The $2500 boat antenna is rated IP 56.
Well, I just crossed the north Atlantic and then the milk run with the cheap antenna. I was in the Azores when a boat next to me showed me his setup with the $150 a month.
You don't run out of data at 50 gb - you pay $2 per GB if you go over.
So I'm not going to give you a written document, I'm just giving you real world experience.
dj