Internet Connectivity When Miles Offshore.

[Zanshin]

Iridium is the only global phone around. All the others are regional players (well, pretty big regions). There is no alternative at present for a circumnavigator.

[Beausoleil]

Originally Posted by Zanshin

Iridium is the only global phone around. All the others are regional players (well, pretty big regions). There is no alternative at present for a circumnavigator.

For the most part this is true. Inmarsat's Swift Broadband will have just about the maximum global service you can have for a system based on geosynchronous satellites (there's no polar coverage - so Northwest Passage sailors won't be able to use it )

Since Iridium's system uses 66 active satellites in low Earth orbit (485 miles up at an orbital inclination of almost 87 degrees) for true global coverage. But since the whole system is basically a narrowband-PBX-in-the-sky, it will never be able to handle broadband data...

[exfishnz]

Originally Posted by Beausoleil

Since Iridium's system uses 66 active satellites .... But since the whole system is basically a narrowband-PBX-in-the-sky, it will never be able to handle broadband data...

True. Although, I do note that they hold some patents for speedy construction of satellites (although I don't know how good it'll be ).

The thing with broadband is that it encourages the use of certain types of inefficient document formats. The same could be said for some protocols (although they were first RFC'd way before the day's of broadband).

Have you ever noticed that with most sites the only changes are really the text & link (& maybe some inefficient images) data. The rest of the stuff really stays the same (until a major site update). For example, if I have a program that already knows what the associated files are to this webpage & its internal data objects (elements), then in theory all I really need is the text to render this page (rather than re-downloading everything). If the site is dynamic, then I can use a compiling/rendering engine on the other side (proxy) to get me the required text etc.

Its interesting, about 2yrs ago, msft bought a small corp that basically ripped html pages from sites & parsed them into mobile html (slimmer format) for handhelds etc.

[imagine2frolic]

We have a t-mobile PMCIA card, and it works off the coastline of eastern Florida at least 10 miles. It is about the same as dialup, but unlimited in up, and dowload. I have sent pics while chatting while rounding Canaveral between the shoals. $32.00 a month total cost. I have had it on the boat since 04, and still working strong.

[hellosailor]

How did you extort $32/month from T-Mobile? Their official rate for unlimited internet data plan, with no phone, is $50/month now.

[pilot]

Here the latest rates from t-mobile


Wireless Internet Access - T-Mobile HotSpots

[hellosailor]

Pilot, those rates are for WIFI not WWAN. WWAN uses the cellular network, WiFi uses local local hotspots and has vastly lower range.

[pilot]

Sorry, for that.

Misunderstood you reference for t-mobile above!

[imagine2frolic]

Maybe, because I have had it so long? It started at $30.00, but the scoundrels have raised the price on me!!!!!!

[hellosailor]

Ioften regret not getting into phone phreaking when it first started and Ma Bell swore that any one of us could black out the nation, or even world, by plugging in anything that wasn't made by Western Electric. It didn't seem ethical back then, but now it only seems like turnabout would be fair play.

[Latitude9.5]

Just a note between the cell services for you guys, Verizon, Sprint and Alltel use EVDO technology, I was on the sprint network for a little over 6 months, got good service, terrible customer service speed about 1,300 kps down 300 kps up, they changed their TOS, to a 5gb bandwidth limit per month, Verizon also has this limit, so I switched to Alltel, which is unlimited, however they have now been bought out by Verizon, so who knows. Alltel's customer service is topnotch and i'm very impressed with their broadband card, getting up to 2,000 kps down and about 500 kps up. All services are $60 per month, alltel has an option to add wifi hotspots for another $10.

ATT uses HSPDA technology on their 3g network, i've used some with my cell phone tethered, service is pretty nice here in florida, they do have a 5gb limit, however included in the $60 per month is access to all of their wifi hotspots for free, starbucks, mcdonalds etc.

Tmobile as far as I know is still on 1xrtt on their mobile broadband, but maybe they are expanding into hspda or evdo I dunno, they also sell wifi service.

Anyhow, hope that helps someone if not it was fun to type