Royal Caribbean, the cruise company that also operates Celebrity Cruises and Silversea Cruises, has announced that it will outfit its fleet of ships with SpaceX’s Starlink Internet service (Via techcrunchThe company says the service will make the internet experience at sea faster and more reliable.

Royal Caribbean seems to be fully moving forward with Starlink deployment service tested aboard one of its ships over the summer, and it will be officially launched on September 5th, starting with a ship called Celebrity Beyond. The company expects to have this service fully deployed in its fleet by the first quarter of 2023.

Royal Caribbean’s announcement did not include technical details, such as how many Starlink dishes its ships would use, or how much bandwidth would be divided among a few thousand passengers. However, the company promises that people will be able to access streaming services and make video calls.

SpaceX’s boat-focused Internet service, Starlink Maritime, is relatively new, with early this summer, Currently, it only covers North and South America (including the Caribbean), Europe and the coastal waters around Australia and New Zealand, but SpaceX says it plans to cover most of the world’s oceans by Q1 2023 Is.

Image: SpaceX

SpaceX has a lot going on with Starlink at the moment. perhaps the most obvious Partnership with T-Mobile To beam texts and calls to cell phones using second-generation satellites, which are planned to be launched next year. company is also Working with Hawaiian Airlines and charter carrier JSX to provide in-flight Wi-Fi, something that delta (And possibility of others) also watching. For those of us on the ground, the company recently launched A Version of the Starlink for RVs,

Meanwhile, the cruise industry has had a hard time recovering from the pandemic, according to a report from Reuters, Like many other businesses, cruise companies had staffing problems, some having to cancel trips. There is also the question of whether people will continue to spring for cruise-like luxuries, as financial leaders like Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell do. warned that efforts to fight inflation “Will bring some trouble to homes and businesses.”