The State of Cruise Ship Wi-Fi Is Still Pricey, But Getting Better

Travelers taking a land-based vacation expect local cafes and attractions, not to mention their hotel rooms, to have quality Wi-Fi that lets them connect with the outside world. And much of the time travelers get just that. But when they board a cruise ship, it's another matter. Connecting a ship to Wi-Fi comes with a unique set of challenges that makes surfing the web on a plane seem like a simple math problem. Cruise lines need a connection that allows thousands of people at a time to stream Hulu or update Facebook from a position many of miles out to sea, and getting that bandwidth that far out isn't easy. The costly packages available to cruisers reflects the immense task of offering Wi-Fi reliant on satellite signals connecting with a moving target. Last year, Skift talked to Royal Caribbean's chief information officer (CIO) Bill Martin on the brand piloting next-generation Wi-Fi connectivity through a startup called O3B, an acronym for "the other three billion" people on