What does a Starlink installation cost (upfront and ongoing) to service 3000-5000 daily users at expected speeds?
Don't forget to price in the costs of installing and maintaining a WiFi network that works consistently in a metal ship whose interior is composed from prefab metal modules. (Hint: every cabin, every space, has one or more APs).
I haven't done the math, and I'm sure they profit on the offering, but I doubt it's as egregious as these replies make it sound.
(I thought about this a bit when I was on a cruise that offered Starlink this past summer.)
Edit: also don't forget that everyone gets free WiFi, it's just that internet access is restricted for guests who don't pay. So it does need to support the ship's full complement and passengers.
Presumably they maintain all those wifi access points regardless of whether or not anyone buys the wifi package. That lets the cruise app work. And the staff use wifi too.
I’m sure servicing thousands of people via starlink is expensive. But the cost is amortised over the number of people using it. Thousands of users should make internet access cheaper, not make it more expensive.
They also don’t provide “normal” internet speeds. I was usually getting about 20kBps - which is painfully slow. I tried to have a zoom call on the one day I paid for internet, and every minute or two we would get a latency spike of 10+ seconds. Those latency spikes went away on other days, but the speed never improved much.
The ship I was on is apparently quite old by modern standards. Maybe they don’t have enough starlink satellites installed or something. (It was definitely starlink). But if that’s the case, it makes the price they’re asking all the more outrageous. For $50/day I could probably bring my own starlink satellite on board and it would come out cheaper.
That is very different to my experience using it on the ship we were on. I was able to stream TV shows in full quality with no issues, took phone calls from work a few times over WiFi too.
I have never used Starlink otherwise and, frankly, expected much worse service - especially on a cruise ship.
I'd definitely be unhappy paying $50/day for what you described. But I paid less (there was a discount for buying a package ahead of time for my family's devices) and got better service it sounds like.
IIRC the cost of Starlink for ships is actually very high. Starts at $5k per month for a commercial vessel I think. Can’t imagine what it is for a passenger ship, but Musk is making his money to be sure.
