 |
Yacht Captain Uses CradlePoint CTR500 to Share 3G Broadband Connection
Reducing Cost and Increasing Internet Access
Situation:
Don King is the captain of a privately-owned, 103-foot yacht that is manned by a crew of two and accommodates up to 9 guests. During the winter months, the boat operates out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and in the summer, it travels up to New England. “People think being a captain of a boat is all fun and games,” says Don. “But in reality, I’m in charge of a multi-million dollar corporation. I have to budget for fuel, provisions, maintenance, repairs, and any other situations that arise. I keep an eye on costs, just like any manager would.”
Challenge:
On other vessels, Don was seeing well over $1,000 a month for Internet service from a satellite provider. “Satellite can be really expensive. For example, I was reading about one boat owner who was a high-tech company founder. He had 4 ISDN [satellite] lines serving his ship. To keep those running 24/7 adds up to something $250,000 to $300,000 a month!”
Besides satellite, other options for Internet access include subscribing to dockside Wi-Fi offered by harbor service providers. “However, once you leave the harbor,” Don explains, “you don’t have service. If you travel to another city, you’re stuck paying upwards of $49-a-night fee to use their service.”
Solution:
Recently, Don got together at a Florida Panthers hockey game with a college friend who was visiting the area. His friend happens to work for CradlePoint. “He told me how I could use a CradlePoint router to create a Wi-Fi hot spot on the boat that would connect to the Internet using my AT&T 3G broadband service,” Don explains. “So I went to Best Buy and the rep there knew exactly what I wanted. He walked me right over to the CradlePoint display. There were a number of options and he helped me choose one that was best for my situation: the [CradlePoint] CTR500 [Mobile Broadband Travel Router].
Installation was quick and easy. “It took all of about 5 minutes,” Don says. He placed the CTR500 at the highest point on the boat then took his laptop to all the nooks and crannies on board. “The signal was good and strong everywhere I went on the ship,” he says.
Now, guests and crew members use the CTR500’s hot spot to connect to the Internet at broadband speeds, even when offshore. “For day excursions, we rarely go more than 3 miles from shore and AT&T’s 3G service is still available that far out. And if we go to another city or harbor along the Florida coast or even in the US Virgin Islands, we can connect using the AT&T 3G service there. Even when we travel up the coast to New York—a four day trip—we rarely lose sight of shore, so we almost always have web access.”
The CTR500 provides fast connections for up to 16 simultaneous users. That’s perfect for the ship, which accommodates a maximum of 12 crew and passengers. The crew uses the web for email communications, checking weather websites and getting schematics of wiring or generators from websites if we’re making repairs or doing maintenance. I also do the ship’s accounting online.”
Don continues: “The other day, the grandkids were on board, downloading music while the owner was using the web for his work and I was checking email. That’s a lot of load—music files are especially big—but the CradlePoint worked great.”
Benefits:
“The CradlePoint delivers virtually the same level of Internet service for pennies on the dollar,” boasts Don. “I’ve been telling all the other captains along the dock and they’re looking into it.”
- Simple. “I plugged in my AT&T 3G Broadband USB card into the CTR500, turned [the CTR500] on, then followed the instructions on the Quick Start Guide. It was very easy,” Don says.
- Affordable. “Marine electronics are notorious for being expensive,” Don explains. “For example, Direct TV/ Internet radomes cost $20-30K each for a ship like ours. So to get the CradlePoint for around $200 is amazing.”
- Reliable. “The signal is excellent throughout the ship and we’ve had no hiccups. [The CTR500] has worked flawlessly since we got it,” Don says.
- Fast. “[The CTR500] is fast,” Don declares.” It handles the big files my boss needs to access with no delays.”
Any last words? “In these economic times, you’re looking for any cost savings you can. Instead of paying $10,000 a year, I’m using the $59.95-a-month AT&T 3G plan that we already have. My owner is happy that I’m saving him thousands of dollars a year.”
