Carnival ships to get hybrid Wi-Fi, promises faster Internet while at sea

Shawn Knight

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cruise ship ten times faster

In a bid to appeal to younger travelers, Carnival Cruise Lines has unveiled a first-of-its-kind hybrid wireless network designed to provide passengers with Internet connectivity speeds up to 10 times faster than before as well as improved reliability.

WiFi@Sea, as it’s being called, utilizes a combination of strategically located land-based long-range Wi-Fi antennas installed along cruise routes, traditional Wi-Fi at each port and an array of satellites. Key to the technology is the software’s ability to seamlessly switch between sources.

Anyone that’s tried to use an Internet connection while on a cruise is well aware of just how frustrating of an experience it can be. In addition to turtle-like speeds, connections are flaky at best and drop frequently.

The service is initially being rolled out for ships sailing in the Caribbean this quarter before coming to Alaska in the summer of 2015. Mediterranean, Baltic, Western Europe and Asian regions will see WiFi@Sea installations spring up through 2016. The service will eventually be offered on all 101 ships across Carnival’s nine brands, we're told.

Carnival has been piloting the new Internet offering for well over a year. Pricing will be ship-specific and although no figures were given, I suspect it’ll be just as – if not more – expensive than it is today.

With any luck, Carnival’s move will prompt its competitors to improve their wireless Internet offerings as well. 

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Do they need wi-fi ? Isn't it best to go on a break like a cruise and just relax get away from everything ? I mean if there is no internet on a ship, then people will go away and think oh well, I booked this, I knew this. It's fine.
I do understand that their is nothing more annoying than having "some" internet, and I think of the refugee camp in the episode of south park where everyone has no interwebs and is in a fluster. And nothing more annoying than those awful web page set up ones, where you have to adhere to crap and can't use your vpn so as to pretend you are in your own country, and get your own news in your language or use pages that want you to be at home and not abroad.
But isn't this all so people can upload crappy selfies to facebook or instagram? Nothing more annoying than that pout that all the girls make, and its the same pout, every time. God I think I would be throwing people overboard to the fishes. And what if the thing sinks, a whole load of instantly uploaded videos of people screaming to haunt friends and family as it goes down. Those are the memories people don't really want stuck in their heads.
TLDR ? But sounds great, faster speeds woo.
 
Internet connectivity speeds up to 10 times faster than before. How fast is the speed today?
 
Well thank God! It's about time!

Who the hell in their right mind would want to go on a cruise just to visit exotic locations, ogle women in thong bikinis, or play shuffleboard anyway?

Wait I know, I'll set a Carnival Cruise ad as my desktop background, and surf the web with my outdated DSL. It won't be as much fun as sitting in some ship's cabin with my face buried in laptop, but it's all I can afford at the moment....:p
 
Young travellers don't take cruises because there's no WiFi. They don't take cruises because they are full of old people....
 
This is good news because I basically take cruises to surf the internet in my cabin. Watching scantilly clad well-endowed women frolic on deck in beer-soaked wet t-shirts as idyllic island scenery passes my food-stuffed face is entirely over-rated.
 
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