That’s a Shakespeare CruiseNet Cellular Router set up at the Miami Boat Show, where it was cruising the Internet at a zingy 3Mb, and serving it up via the WiFi router at left, which is plugged into one of its four Ethernet ports. When installed on a boat those dual stubbies would be replaced by a pair of marine cell antennas, because CruiseNet’s high performance design incorporates antenna diversity technology. Another reason for its somewhat jaw dropping cost—models start around $1,600, street, without the antennas!—is the industrial-strength, full-power cell transceiver built into the box. Most of the other cellular routers that boaters are fooling with—like the Junxion Box or the Kyocera KR1, or even KVH’s TracNet 100–use a wimpier PC-card-style consumer-grade radio that you supply. CruiseNet also includes a one year subscription to the “Full-Throttle” proxy server compression service Shakespeare has set up (renewable at $50/year), and it somehow establishes a static IP address, which apparently is not easy on a cell network. The IP address means that CruiseNet and everything attached to it can be queried from other computers, which leads to all sorts of possibilities, as was illustrated by the control and monitoring test board Shakespeare had set up in its booth. This product could the heart of a very connected boat, at least until you get 20–50 miles off the U.S. coast, where Sprint and Verizon broadband always-on data service ends. I’m working on an article about connected cruising, and would love to hear how people are using WiFi, cell, sats, SSB, and/or pigeons to stay in touch, or whatever.
Posted by Ben on April 11, 2007 6:21 PM
Comments
The Cruise Net system sounds ideal for US waters, but my wife and I are about to set sail around the world. What's the best system to give us maximum internet connectivity in foreign waters?
Posted by: Ted Halstead at June 23, 2007 8:36 PM
CruiseNet looks pretty cool. It only seems to do CDMA EVDO though. That means Sprint and Verizon only. Possibly limiting world travel areas. Antenna diversity is interesting, I wonder if it really makes and difference though with external marine antennas.
I'd also like to see what the power output is of the unit alone with no amplifier. Does it really have Super Power Output? It doesn't look very Heat Sinked. 3 watts would be high power. Would they be diversifying that to two different outputs? I might be impressed if those details were published. Also why would you need to Proxy / Compression the web with High Speed Internet? Compression typically used on Slower Speed Internet Services... compresses images and thus lower quality images.
I'm always a little wary of what I call "dB Marketing" which I've used to discuss antennas. You have dBi, dBd, and dB Marketing. I'd like more real specifications and test results before I'd be a believer. Shakespeare has always been a popular name in antennas, and I otherwise have not reason to doubt their quality.
A shout out Hello to Ted Halstead. I see you're a Panbo fan as well.
Did I mention you might be locking yourself into a specific cellular carrier (ala iPhone stuck with AT&T)? Tell me if I'm wrong, but there are two versions, one for Sprint, and one for Verizon?
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