Electronic Communication on the Lakes

[Guest]

Thanks for all the information. I'm really surprised it isn't a higher priority - I'd think that if mariners could facetime or zoom their family every day on the lakes, and be able to use email and text, it would make for a much happier crew.

As a business owner I have to watch costs, but it's hard to attract great employees who want to stick around unless the "current" basics they are used to elsewhere are also at our place. And they don't even live aboard like mariners. But I've never owned a steamship.

Having raised two kids who grew up with a phone as an appendage, I'd love to see a video of someone their age being on the water for the first time and finding out they have no cell coverage!

[Guest]

Now I remember. We used our vessels Safety money rewards to buy the tv’s for the entire crew.

[Guest]

It is one thing to say they do, however when there is no bandwidth to support using the equipment it is a waste.

Satellite tv if you bring your own Bell receiver. Only licenced crew have tvs supplied.

Take any company presentations with a grain of salt!

Sorry for your company/shipmates. Our satellite receivers were supplied by the company to everyone. All of our TV’s (entire crew) belong to the vessel. I forgot how we pulled that off. Company supplies basic programming, the crew picks up the balance of the tap. Since we had almost every channel available including East/west coast National network feeds, sports networks, NFL Sunday Ticket, NHL Package (some vessels) and all of the movie channels.

[Guest]

It is one thing to say they do, however when there is no bandwidth to support using the equipment it is a waste.

Satellite tv if you bring your own Bell receiver. Only licenced crew have tvs supplied.

Take any company presentations with a grain of salt!

[Guest]

Did I not see a presentation by Algoma said all there new ships have satellite TV and Wifi in everyones room

[Guest]

The big Bear has shipboard wifi that is useless for this century (think dial up speed of 1995). The company and unions could care less.

[Guest999]

When I acted as shipkeeper on the Algosteel in early 2016, the ship itself had at least one ship assigned cell phone, this phone was always carried by me in case Algoma was trying to contact me. I believe it was the one assigned for use by the chief engineer. I seem to recall one assigned to the captain's use as well. There also was a satellite phone that was to allow for communication when the boat was out of cell range. Internet was available via the computer in the chief engineer's office, and my laptop worked as well with the password provided. As the Algosteel was moored safely in the shipping channel in Toronto's Port Lands district, I don't know if that aided in good signal strength for cell phone service and internet.

There was a satellite receiver for Bell in both the aft recreation lounge, and the chief engineer's office. I never looked to see if there were receivers in the forward cabins. The receiver in the chief engineer's office was programmed with the CTV, CBC, and Global Network's stations across Canada, you could watch the local news at 5 from hour to hour as the time moved east to west across the nation. There were also plenty of music only channels available on that receiver.

I have a friend who takes shorter assignments out of the SIU hall now, and he always answers my emails in fairly short order no matter where his boat may be on the lakes or the St. Lawrence.

[GuestfromEU]

Different companies have different priorities. Crew comfort is a growing topic, embraced by some ship managers, abhorred by others. AMO officers routinely complain about their lack of useful or reliable internet access but neither the company nor the union seems interested in improving the situation.

I have no involvement in the Great Lakes ships. The ocean going ships I work directly with all have unlimited internet and data for the Master and Chief Engineer plus two public computers for the crew. The Bridge and Engine Control Room are also unlimited. Crew wifi is free for the first 20 GB per month, after which they pay $20 for additional 20 GB increments. That does not recover 100% of the costs (true costs are about $28 for 20 GB). I work on the office side and I can say internet access is not prohibitively expensive. Our unlimited data packages plus 20 GB crew wifi access is base price USD 2,375 per month per ship. That averages to USD 108 per month for each 22 crew. These ships trade between Europe and Far East, but satellite coverage and costs do not matter where the ship is positioned.

[shirtofgreen]

Most, if not all vessels, have a satellite antenna (typically the largest white dome on the ships). These plans are very expensive and are pretty limited onboard the ship for crew connectivity.

we put cell booster antenna systems inside quite a few ships, however these only worked within the 12mi radius of the towers at best. then it was up to the individual crew members to have their own hotspots.

I believe interlake was experimenting with hotspots for a while as the primary means (plans are considerably cheaper).

[Colin]

All the ships I have worked on have wifi onboard that works most of the time. I believe the last one was a hybrid system that would connect to to cell towers when they were in rang and satellite when it could not.

[Guest]

Just before I retired, we had limited WIFI on board the vessel. Smart phones were just coming out. We could call/text around Duluth/Two Harbors. Then around Eagle Harbor to Copper Harbor. Finally around Whitefish Pt.. As far as TV. Starting around 1997 we had satellite tv.

[Westcoastwine]

After visiting this board, I looked up the JW Westcott II, which I learned had a tough history since I was last aboard her in the early 80s. Always thought that'd be a pretty sweet job -working the water all day and going home at night.

Back then, the Westcott's mail delivery was its real mainstay (only floating zip code). And I realize it still probably delivers laundry, and people still catch ships and freighters from there.

But it got me wondering - is there wifi/satellite or whatever coverage on the lakes for "ordinary" electronic communications? Are mariners just as "connected" as the rest of us while on the Lakes?

And if there is coverage, that begs the question of what coverage is on Superior? Back in the day we didn't have TV reception going across her. Somehow, I kind of hope that it's a place where email and texts don't exist...