24/7 Unlimited Satelite internet

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amcl

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I've been reading a lot about the KVH Tracphone V7

http://www.youtube.com/v/Kvw_vGGIM84&hl=en_US


I'm really looking for a solid solution for 24/7 internet whilst at sea. Can it really be the case that this is the only product on the marketplace?
Has anyone had any experience with this?

It's quite a lot to spend on the unit (doubtless the price will drop a bit soon, i've already seen a 20% reduction in the last 6 months) so I'm looking for as much input as possible.
Thanks very much
 
amcl said:
It's quite a lot to spend on the unit (doubtless the price will drop a bit soon, i've already seen a 20% reduction in the last 6 months) so I'm looking for as much input as possible.
Click to expand...

Have you checked the airtime rates? :eek:
 
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Our ships and bases use VSat. First of all, the equipment cost is the least of it - air time is fiendishly expensive, and I think you have to have a contract for a particular band-width - no pay as you go or rolling contract. And band-width on the satellites is a finite resource, so it won't get cheaper any time soon.

Just for example, we pay swingeing costs for a 256k link. About quarter of a million, if I'm looking at the right numbers - spread over 2 ships and 4 bases.

Second, there is a safety zone around the antenna; for the full size antennae, you aren't allowed within several metres of the antenna; more along the line of sight. On a mobile installation where the line of sight isn't fixed, of course the safety zone extends all round the antenna.. All ours are either inaccessible or fenced off. So, I'd imagine there are issues about mounting the antenna on a yacht somewhere where it won't fry people.

Our Antarctic bases at Halley and Rothera are right at the southernmost limit of use - but I doubt that will be a problem for you!
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Our ships and bases use VSat. First of all, the equipment cost is the least of it - air time is fiendishly expensive, and I think you have to have a contract for a particular band-width - no pay as you go or rolling contract
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Here's a price sheet for the mini-VSat service the OP is looking at:

http://www.kvh.com/Pages/miniVSAT-B.../TracPhone V7 Airtime Rate Sheet A4 0911.ashx

It's certainly not cheap, but it's not as much as you're paying. 256mb both ways always-on is $2500 per month, or $30,000 per year vs your 250,000 (pounds or dollars?).

They do also offer metered use, running at 2mbps down / 1mbps up and paying per mb. They offer various plans, but interestingly unless I'm misunderstanding they all work out at $2ish per mb so there's no reason not to buy the smallest plan and minimise your fixed costs. The exception is at the "M1000" level, but by that point you're paying so much it starts to collide with the fixed plans.

Add another grand per month to the above to lease the hardware; didn't look at the outright purchase cost.

Presumably the OP is some kind of Russian oil billionaire? :D

Pete
 
prv said:
Here's a price sheet for the mini-VSat service the OP is looking at:

http://www.kvh.com/Pages/miniVSAT-B.../TracPhone V7 Airtime Rate Sheet A4 0911.ashx

It's certainly not cheap, but it's not as much as you're paying. 256mb both ways always-on is $2500 per month, or $30,000 per year vs your 250,000 (pounds or dollars?).

They do also offer metered use, running at 2mbps down / 1mbps up and paying per mb. They offer various plans, but interestingly unless I'm misunderstanding they all work out at $2ish per mb so there's no reason not to buy the smallest plan and minimise your fixed costs. The exception is at the "M1000" level, but by that point you're paying so much it starts to collide with the fixed plans.

Add another grand per month to the above to lease the hardware; didn't look at the outright purchase cost.

Presumably the OP is some kind of Russian oil billionaire? :D

Pete
Click to expand...

My price is in pounds, for something like 7 or 8 connections, so I guess we're in the same ball park. I was taking the price from an aggregated "communications" heading in our annual report, and guessing a bit, so actually, it is nice to get confirmation that I had the right order of magnitude!

$30,000 a year still makes the running costs look like the major expense, rather than the equipment.

The safety issues still stand - I am sure they are solvable, but it is something to consider. Also, the antenna has to be aimed fairly accurately; I wonder how it performs on a small vessel at sea?
 
The TracPhone V3 was released at SIBS this year, with a number of different call packages and up to 2mbps download speed. It's less than 16 inches in diameter and weighs less than 12 kg

for $50/month you get 50MB
for $250/month you get 250MB
for $500/month you get 500MB
and for $999 you get 1000MB

$1.99 for every extra MB you use above you're limit, for all by the $999, when it's $0.99. Voice calls are $0.49/min

You can also have two land line numbers so anyone calling those numbers pays the standard rate rather than the Sat phone call cost.

The downside? it's £15K:eek:

http://www.caclase.co.uk/

More info from KVH
 
snooks said:
$1.99 for every extra MB you use above you're limit
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According to the pricelist I linked above, it's also $0.99 for each MB within your limit.

So if you use exactly your limit, for each MB you pay $1 as a share of the plan price plus $0.99 for the MB itself, or $1.99 in total.

Pete
 
About 10 years ago I looked at satellite for our internet café where ISDN was the best we could get at the time. Far too expensive.

It obviously hasn't got any better, in fact it's even more expensive. Apart from the Antarctic and similar places how can they generate a market? Maybe there are enough Russian oil billionaires to make it pay :)
 
I'm not sure if you saw the promo & package (v7). This is the first satellite service to offer totally unmetered and unrestricted use of their service.

It only launched this year. The hardware is a big cost not sure what the mOnthy/annual fees are (if any)
 
amcl said:
I'm not sure if you saw the promo & package (v7). This is the first satellite service to offer totally unmetered and unrestricted use of their service.

It only launched this year. The hardware is a big cost not sure what the mOnthy/annual fees are (if any)
Click to expand...

I'm not sure whether you've read any of the replies to your original query, but I think they suggest that the monthly fees are horrendous.
 
What I meant was, I think people are confusing the pay-per-megabyte service to this new style of unmetered one. I'm aware that the satellite Internet world has been horrendously expensive in the past and may still be. if anyone can give me actual experiences with this package or other 24/7 unmetered services in not aware of I'd be much obliged.
 
amcl said:
What I meant was, I think people are confusing the pay-per-megabyte service to this new style of unmetered one.
Click to expand...

Not confusing it at all, but after seeing the $30,000 per year cost of the unmetered service I was concentrating on the metered one as being slightly closer to reality for individuals.

Pete
 
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