A guide to getting internet access on your boat with a mobile broadband dongle

My livelihood is based entirely on the internet, and so for this liveaboard, reliable internet access on the boat is essential. This short article will explain what’s on offer, as well as include some tips and alternatives to a dongle.

Mobile Broadband Dongle

There are a few options available when it comes to bringing the world wide web to you chart table, but if you want a solid, fast connection almost anywhere, then a dongle is your only choice. With mobile broadband I have written blog posts all up the East coast, checked Facebook on the Norfolk Broads, uploaded a video to youtube from a picturesque creek in the Essex rivers, and chatted to a bloke over Skype while a mile or so offshore in the North sea. Not to mention the fact that I earn my living through it.

The usefulness of an internet connection on your boat is not limited to simply providing your fix of social networking though, nope, it’s far more useful than that.

Having the ability to check tides on line, look up marina websites for prices (something I have done whilst at sea and before I made the choice over which one to go to), check the weather, find phone numbers, and even ask for advice on your favourite sailing forum, can save an awful lot of hassle and time.

When I first moved on to the boat I was stuck for options. Mobile broadband was available, but I didn’t know much about it, and so I spent a month or so following the other liveaboards’ wifi signal advice. "If you sit on the bow of our boat, you can just about pick up the Ping Pong network". It was not uncommon to see contorted bodies on their boats or pontoons, holding laptops at obscure angles above their heads in the desperate hope that the signal would cling on just long enough to send that important email.

This was obviously no good. A temperamental and borrowed internet connection was welcome in an emergency, but I needed something far more reliable, if only for my sanity.

I ended up going for a Pay As You Go dongle from Three. I bought mine from the highstreet, but based on previous experience with mobile phone shops, I’d highly recommend buying online. The distance selling regulations offer you a lot more protection than if you buy from a bricks and mortar shop.

With the Three network, most places I’ve visited, with surprisingly few exceptions, have delivered good signals capable of streaming video from Youtube, or downloading large files. Occasionally, out in the sticks as it were, the signal may become weak, but surfing the net, checking the weather or dealing with an inbox full of spam are still acceptable.

Cost

Obviously this depends on what you want from an internet connection on your boat, but PAYG prices start from £10 for a 1GB top up.

If your internet use is fairly light and occasional, then I recommend PAYG (Pay As You Go). The cheapest contract on Three is £10 per month for 1GB, and that’s going to tie you into a 12 or 18 month contract. PAYG gives you the same deal without the commitment to the contract: If you’re not on the boat over the winter, then why pay for internet access? Also, with PAYG, you have the option to buy more data should you run out.

For heavy internet users a contract is the cheapest option. For £30 per month you can get a 15Gb data allowance, and a "free" netbook laptop thrown in for good measure. Most of these things now have battery lives of up to 8 hours, which is ideal for using on the boat. Bonus!

Data Allowance

For the benefit of those that don’t know, this sentence is 76 bytes in size. That is to say, in simple terms, a single character is one byte. A kilobyte (kb) is 1024 bytes, and a megabyte (mb) is in turn 1024 kilobytes, or 1,048,576 characters. One gigabyte, or 1Gb, is therefore 1024 megabytes. That is obviously an awful lot of text. It’s a mass of email and web page content, indeed, you’d have to spend almost your entire month reading and writing emails non-stop in order to use 1Gb of data. However, if you throw the modern day internet in to the mix, with pictures and videos, then this quickly gets eaten up. A single viewing of something on BBC iPlayer, for example, would use over half of a gigabyte!

In short, if you include websites like youtube in your internet activities, then you should really opt for as much data allowance as you can afford.

The maximum allowance that Three offers is 15Gb per month. This is the package I use, and despite heavy use I rarely run out. Unfortunately, I have twice reached this limit, and woe betide the sailor that follows me, because Three charge a whopping 10p for every megabyte beyond your allowance. To use the iPlayer example again, a single viewing of Professor Brian Cox’s wonderful series on the solar system would cost you £65 in extra data fees!!

T-mobile, on the other hand, adopt a much fairer system in that once you go over your allowance, they simply throttle your connection speed. That is to say, they make your internet connection much slower, so while you could no longer stream video off the internet, it would still be possible to check the weather or your email without incurring further cost. Unfortunately, T-mobile doesn’t have the best signal coverage, and so it’s not ever so useful for the travelling yachty.

There are, of course, "dead spots", but during my travels up the East coast of Britain in 2009, I found these to be surprisingly rare. Of course, this will vary depending on your network, but Three has certainly impressed me with their coverage so far.

Oh, but as with everything there is a downside to Three, although for most people I don’t think this will be a problem. Three cap your usage, and even when on the highest available package (15gb per month) they will simply cut off your connection should you exceed this limit. If you wish to continue your access you will be charge at 10p per megabyte. This is wildly expensive, and the only option available until your next monthly billing cycle starts.

I do have the highest package, and I have (this month for example) ran out of data allowance. Since my connectivity is directly related to be ability to buy food I have a second pay as you go dongle (again with Three) that I can use in an emergency. £15 will buy you 3gb worth of data.

Tips for internet access on a boat

It sounds obvious, but if you’re lacking in signal strength, try to get the dongle as high as possible. A 5m USB extension lead works a treat in dry weather since you can haul the dongle up a flag halyard. I have done this on the broads and gone from not a sniff of a signal, to three bars of usable connectivity.

For heavy internet users, particularly people who do make use of iPlayer, download the iPlayer desktop application. When you find a cheaper source of data (free pub wifi for example) you can download a selection of your favourite viewing and watch them off line back on the boat later. This will save you a huge amount of data.

Alternatives to Mobile Broadband

There is only one realistic alternative, and that’s wifi. Unfortunately, it’s just not constant enough to be relied upon unless you never move your boat. However, if you’re willing to go for a bit of a walk into the local town, you’re fairly sure to find a free wifi hotspot somewhere.

Good deals I’ve found

For the heavy internet user, this is a pretty decent deal. Indeed, I wish I’d had seen this when I signed up to mine. 15Gb for £25 per month, including free dongle and 100 quid cashback! Click here

For the weekend, casual broadband user, then this deal from Vodaphone is pretty good. £25 for a PAYG dongle, including a free £15 top up (3GB). Sadly the top-ups only last for a month, so if you don’t use all your data within 30 days, you’ll lose it and have to buy another. Most annoying for the truly casual user.

Fear not though, because t-mobile offer a cracking option to buy daily access for just £2! Click here. That’s perfect for the weekend weather check on the boat.

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