Remote Work on a Transatlantic?

[twangster]

Starlink is changing every week,  More satellites go up, new FCC applications are approved, stuff changes.

 

There can be regional or isolated challenges with a particular gateway city.  These are addressed and improvements made.  If a residential Starlink subscriber is bound to that problem spot they live it daily but they will also see if change overnight when it's fixed.

 

A moving ship touches dozens of gateway cities along the itinerary.  A bad day for a cruise ship guest can be localized to a specific location but that can change week to week.  It doesn't mean the next cruise on the same itinerary will have the same bad spot a week later.

 

Starlink is very different compared to O3b/SES and vastly different from legacy geostationary satellite service.  You can't apply satellite knowledge or issues from these older services to Starlink.  

 

Over time Starlink gets better and better and that can be measured in small steps week to week.  A moment in time review from a particular ship and a particular user is great feedback but immediately dated the moment it's posted.  

[pretzlaff]

We did both the Symphony and the Jewel transatlantic in the last 2 months.  The internet was not good.  There were parts of the ship that never had a signal. Then other parts like our cabin, it would come and go.

 

Sooner or later, I would get tired of waiting for websites to load and simply give up.

 

I was only browsing websites and not really demanding much.

 

Frankly, it does not seem much better than before the new system.

 

If you attempt to work, it will end poorly.

[Btank]

On 4/23/2023 at 12:36 AM, kayjaypea42 said:

Any advice (even if the advice is to not try it...) Thanks!!

I'm glad those halcyon days are behind me! 🤣

 

It's unclear to me why Starlink Maritime would function differently on a TA.  As others have pointed out, Starlink Ground restricts the location to supported countries and just offshore.  You can see the Starlink constellation by clicking here.

 

Another factor to consider will be your actual connection to work - particularly if your IT department requires a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access SalesForce, your email, etc.  VPN was not supported on Voom Internet; however, I was above to get it to work on Freedom OTS a few years back.  I've seen anecdotal comments about VPN working on RCL Starlink-equipped ships.

 

I think the key takeaway here is to hope for the best, but expect the worst.  If connectivity is required with minimal off-line time, a TA may not be the best for you.  

 

Good luck!      --bruce T.

 

[kayjaypea42]

1 hour ago, Btank said:

 

I think the key takeaway here is to hope for the best, but expect the worst.  If connectivity is required with minimal off-line time, a TA may not be the best for you.  

 

Yeah, I am rethinking it. I might still consider it when I can take 2.5 weeks off at one go. 

[Lane Hog]

I've had good success working remote from both RCL and Carnival ships, but that's been mostly in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.  Glad to hear it worked for open ocean where I can probably get away with remote working for a week.