Wi-Fi on the water: How to get the internet into your boat

Connectivity has even spread to the water, where owners can log in and check everything from the health of the boat’s engines to how many times the bilge pump has had to automatically kick in to keep your pride and joy afloat.

While connectivity at the dock or boat ramp is easy, staying connected once you point the boat to the great beyond is never guaranteed.

How then can you enjoy your boat while staying in touch with the latest trends in social media? Let’s take a look at a few options that will keep the data flowing.

Most of us already have a smartphone in our pocket, so it’s easy to just share the phone’s data plan with all the devices around it that are hungry for a bit of connectivity.

Usually, all you need to do is dive into the phone’s settings and set your device up as a personal hotspot. This turns your phone into the equivalent of a wireless hub, allowing devices to connect and piggyback off the phone’s data.

You’ll then need to go to every Wi-Fi-enabled device on the boat that needs connectivity and add it to the hub by connecting to the smartphone’s hub and using the special password you set up when you first turned on the personal hotspot option.

Of course, there are a couple of problems here. The first is that you only have connectivity for as long as the phone is in range of a mobile phone tower, so if you’re heading somewhere remote you could drop the connection.

Even if you do get reception, the reach of mobile phone towers shrinks as the number of people using them increases – think of the pain of trying to load Facebook after the final siren sounds at the footy finals.

If you’re somewhere far-flung with a couple of bars of reception, the next day when the number of boats around you increases you may have limited or no reception as everyone competes with each other for connectivity.

The second is that data-heavy applications could easily nuke all your monthly data allocation before you know it. Fire up a music streaming service or send a child below to watch a video feed on the tablet and before you know it you have zero data left.

The coverage of different phone networks is also an important thing to consider, particularly if you plan on trips away from civilisation. Factor it into your needs.

Likes: Lowest set-up cost; easy to connect and use
Dislikes: Limited reach away from urban areas; streaming could wipe out your data allowance

Most Internet of Things devices don’t need to make phone calls, so all they need is data – and plenty of it.

It makes sense then to think about using an LTE 4G router that uses a mobile network connection just like your smartphone but allows you to use a data-only SIM card rather than one optimised for making phone calls.

An LTE “long-term evolution” device specialises in data transfers. You can get versions that plug into a normal household wall socket just like a broadband modem, but the ones we’re interested in have a built-in battery that makes them highly compact and portable.

These pocket-sized routers can usually also act as a wireless hub, allowing devices to connect and use data just like a normal household router, but also recharge via a USB connection.

You have a lot more versatility with data plans, too, with options ranging from annual subscriptions to monthly plans, and even pay-as-you-go.

Sometimes, though, a pure data plan may not be ideal; it may be cheaper to look at a mobile phone plan that allows users to roll over unused data each month so that the months you use little or no data bulk up the months where you use lots.

Otherwise, an LTE 4G router has the same network issues as a smartphone, meaning if you’re on the edge of reception or in an area where a lot of devices are trying to connect, you’re going to have dropouts.

Likes: Keeps your onboard data needs separate from your mobile phone; plenty of data-only SIM plan options; uses a separate device to your smartphone; cheap to buy
Dislikes: Limited reach away from urban areas; smartphone plan with data rollover may be cheaper and more user-friendly

If connectivity is a 24/7 must-have so that you can, say, manage your digital currency portfolio no matter where you are, then a satellite data connection is going to be essential. 

Services such as Starlink use satellites in orbit around the Earth to provide a decent amount of coverage to most corners of the world’s oceans – but not all of them.

The price for this almost always-on connectivity is a high one, literally. Be prepared to pay a hefty monthly fee for even a moderate amount of data, and if you plan on regularly streaming data, bump that up to almost the same spend as a mortgage repayment.

High-speed satellite-based internet services seem to mostly be a commercial product, with recreational applications taking a back seat. They’re made to work in everything from the hot Mediterranean sun to the peak of howling Cape Horn storms.

But you’re not just buying the data. To hook up to a satellite internet system you’re also going to have to dig deep to buy the equipment needed to connect – Starlink’s system, for instance, costs $3740 and includes a flat-panel antenna, wireless router and an AC power supply as well as all the cables and mounts you’ll need to fit it to the boat.

Likes: Huge amount of global coverage; proper high-speed internet service in any weather
Dislikes: Expensive set-up costs; ongoing costs can be a bit high, too; needs AC power

How long is a piece of string? Thankfully, our major mobile network providers have data use calculators that attempt to take some of the guesswork out of ensuring you have enough bits and bytes to cope with the demand.

Data usage calculators tend to show that even with a modest amount of streaming services, say around two hours of banging out tunes, 30 minutes of social media, bouncing around a few emails and kicking back to watch a movie most nights, you’re going to be using around 1.0GB of data a day.

If your boat is equipped with an electronic security system, it is constantly keeping in touch with its remote server. If cameras are installed, it can also send either live video stream or images off your boat to a distant server.

If you’re working remotely, a virtual private network that allows you to securely log in as though you were sitting at a desk in the office can also chew up a surprising amount of data.

Unless you have a remote security or monitoring system installed, you only use this data while you’re on your boat. If you only step onboard six days a month, that’s only around 6.0GB of data.

Your mileage may vary, so it may be best to initially sign up for a pay-as-you-go plan until you get some sort of benchmark to how data-heavy your boat-based lifestyle can be.