# Internet access cruising the Bahamas



## 10kreasons (Jun 10, 2013)

We plan to cruise the Bahamas Spring of '18 with 3 kids and homeschool. The homeschooling options especially for our teenagers seem to require daily internet access. Does anyone have any experience or advice? Last year while bareboating in the Exumas we used a cellular hotspot that worked ok, but we only used it once in Highborne area with decent cell signal and then once near Staniel. Any advice on reliable internet access (or alternative homeschooling options for highschoolers) while cruising the Bahamas would be appreciated.


----------



## midwesterner (Dec 14, 2015)

I know of a family who homeschooled their kids and paid to subscribe to some online program that had an option to print out paper study guides and worksheets. 
I will try to figure out what it was.

There are satellite domes you can buy to have internet access anywhere in the world, but I hear it is pretty expensive.

You could find out what textbooks are used for each of your kids grades in your home public school and purchase actual books. Or, many textbooks may still be available on CDs for people who do not have internet access.

If there are grandparents or other relatives in your home state, they could purchase and ship materials to you as your kids progressed through the various courses and grades.


----------



## RichH (Jul 10, 2000)

Cell phone access/coverage (BaTelCo) in the Exumas, etc. is spotty at best. 
Suggest you look into an external mast, etc. mounted aux. cell phone antenna.

For direct connect (pirating) to land based WiFi routers consider a 'ubitiqui bullet' based powered/amplified WiFi antenna system. Example antennas: Bitstorm Online .... good for line of sight for up to about 6+ miles depending on how high in the rigging the antenna is mounted. 
You'll usually need a password from the operator (marinas, restaurants, etc.) of any such Wifi nodes to enter such systems although with a high quality antenna system that can 'reach out' many miles you will occasionally find an 'open' node. Closer to the major ports and 'destination' areas there are Wifi subscription services.

Be aware in the Bahamas, etc. that increasingly many 'open' (no password needed) WiFi access points 'can' be _criminal_ .... so consider to use a very strong firewall for your data. Better is to get a 'disposable' PC and keep any 'financials', credit card info, etc. entirely off of the PC.


----------



## BillMoran (Oct 1, 2016)

To further define "expensive" ... I looked at satellite Internet recently and it seemed to run around $1000/month.

Check out the Wynns' videos and blogs. They've commented multiple times on the difficulty in finding decent internet and on what they've tried and what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately, I don't know of a single video or blog post to point you to, as it seems the information is spread across many: Gone With the Wynns


----------



## RichH (Jul 10, 2000)

BaTelCo carried WiFi in the Bahamas doesn't support/permit 'Skype', etc. or other VOIP services ... at least, as of last year.

Ive found that on some of the smaller out-islands if you get to know or gain very good rapport with some of the 'friendlier' ex-pats living there they will, on occasion, 'open' their Wifi routers.


----------



## hpeer (May 14, 2005)

We just spent 3 months in the Bahamas. My WIfe needed about 10 hours of voice connectivity each week. We found Verizon Travel Pass, at $10/each day used was our best choice.

But internet data was spotty and often extremely slow. They seem to throttle Verizon access. There may be some Batelco data plans that work better. 

Our experience was that internet was unreliable and down occasionally. 

Perhaps if you intend to stay in the bigger areas (Georgetown Marsh Harbor) or make judicious ot island trips between assignments you can make it work.


We have a WiriPro WiFI extender but there was very little open wifi. There are paid providers that have coverage in limited areas.

We also have a cell phone booster (Webster?) and could get voice coverage in lot of areas.

Not a simple answer. All cost money.


----------



## ianjoub (Aug 3, 2014)

BillMoran said:


> To further define "expensive" ... I looked at satellite Internet recently and it seemed to run around $1000/month.


That seems quite reasonable to have internet anywhere in the world you happen to be. I turned off my cable tv 15 years ago, but know people who spend $200 + per month for it and internet.

I wonder how much data/bandwidth one gets for that money vs. how much one could use for useful tasks (not streaming movies and downloading avatars on forums).


----------



## BillMoran (Oct 1, 2016)

ianjoub said:


> I wonder how much data/bandwidth one gets for that money vs. how much one could use for useful tasks (not streaming movies and downloading avatars on forums).


I could be remembering wrong, but I seem to remember that for $1000/month, you got quite good speed.

My problem with it was there was no way to downgrade. I would be completely happy with enough bandwidth to read emails and do a few other things. I feel no need to stream video on my boat or any other high-bandwidth activity. Even at home, where I use it quite indiscriminately, I have the slowest plan they offer and seldom have complaints about speed.

However, I couldn't find anyone who offered slower speeds for less money. I don't think the market is big enough for the providers to bother with tiered offerings.


----------



## hellsop (Jun 3, 2014)

BillMoran said:


> Check out the Wynns' videos and blogs. They've commented multiple times on the difficulty in finding decent internet and on what they've tried and what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately, I don't know of a single video or blog post to point you to, as it seems the information is spread across many: Gone With the Wynns


The What Does It Cost video has the best recap of that.


----------



## Don L (Aug 8, 2008)

It all depends on where in the Bahamas you are. We have Sprint and that worked well for data in the Abacos. Plus at the "towns" I would sign up for paid wifi internet for $20/week. That worked well enough at Marsh harbor to stream good video.

But in Exumas there isn't any phone signal for a lot of it and even if you get it (even in a marina) it isn't very good. In george Town I paid that $20 for a week of wifi and all I got was a wifi signal that could barely connect to the internet once in awhile.


----------



## SVStella (May 12, 2017)

We're here now at Highbourne Cay in the Exumas as we were looking for a cell tower! The Abacos and Eleuthera had decent BTC coverage, but in the Exumas it's been very spotty and since my wife and I work as we travel, we've had to go looking for it. Staniel Cay area (we didn't go further south) and the next option for us was Highbourne Cay which has a tower but not a very good range. We are using a Wirie Pro (cell and wifi booster) and got our BTC card from MrSimcards before we left. Wifi has been pretty horrible. In the Abacos we found two paid hotspot services, one was Wimax and the other was OII (outer island internet) and Wimax was a waste of $20 for a week as we could connect but not receive any data.


----------



## 10kreasons (Jun 10, 2013)

thanks for the message SVStella. I am afraid reliable internet access is going to be very difficult. You mentioned Wimax was a waste, what about OII, did that work and could you have live streamed video? thanks


----------



## SVStella (May 12, 2017)

No, we didn't try OII, I'm not sure if it was as common as Wimax but the login page seemed to load up pretty fast for what that's worth (struggled to even do that with Wimax after signing up!). For us the BTC sim card was the main provider for us. They have an unlimited plan which is essentially 15gb before they stop your service but it's easy to subscribe again for $35. Having a way to download videos and not have to stream them is very helpful - find a restaurant or something and load up on as much as you can. 

I've considered satellite internet as well, but the cheapest option I know of where you can download what you wish (not restricted like IridiumGO) was $1000 for 2gb. Tempting as a back up plan but not the bulk data that we all need on occasions. 

Another thing, using BTC, you could study the coverage maps, take them with a grain of salt and plan your trip accordingly. On my Navionics charts, I can see BTC cell towers and ActiveCaptain users always describe pretty well access options so we plan our itinerary a little around that as well. A little sad, but hey, still gotta work!


----------



## SVStella (May 12, 2017)

You can also look at the international plans from T-Mobile (slow apparently), AT&T ($10/day when you use it but still restrictions on amount of data), Verizon and Sprint. There exist a couple of companies that do mifi/hotspots which are approx $7-8 day for unlimited data - Skyroam, Keepgo, Xcom, etc.


----------



## midwesterner (Dec 14, 2015)

If inconsistent internet access is an issue, there are home school curriculum sites that have downloadable or printable materials.

http://www.calverteducation.com/curriculum/complete-homeschool-curriculum

Is one that I have found that has printable study materials. There are also physical science kits. You could print out lessons, have family members ship some textbooks, and have the kids do the work on the go. 
When you do enter a port with adequate wifi, the kids can use that time to take the exams, and ask questions on homework.

If you are going to teach your kids that an education can be had in places other than schools, teach them that learning can also be achieved without the internet.

Biology can be taught as well, if not better, in a tidal pool near the ocean, than it can in a lab class. At the least, you will probably want to have a decent quality high school microscope, petri dishes, specimen trays and vials and a dip net.


----------



## BryceGTX (Sep 7, 2011)

10kreasons said:


> We plan to cruise the Bahamas Spring of '18 with 3 kids and homeschool. The homeschooling options especially for our teenagers seem to require daily internet access. Does anyone have any experience or advice? Last year while bareboating in the Exumas we used a cellular hotspot that worked ok, but we only used it once in Highborne area with decent cell signal and then once near Staniel. Any advice on reliable internet access (or alternative homeschooling options for highschoolers) while cruising the Bahamas would be appreciated.


We cruised all through the Exumas, Abacos, Elutheras, Chub Cay and Bimini Spring 2016.. for about 2 months.. we use internet all through the boat daily for computers.. laptops.. phones.. tablets. Blogging, WebEx, videos.. our requirements are heavier than most.

No question.... use BTC.. they provide 4G-lte pretty much every where.. Only hole we saw was at Land And Sea park Exumas. No towers allowed in park.

Their 4g is wicked fast.. 5GB $50 dollars... we had internet at Great Sail Cay!!! Miles from any tower.. do not bother with ATt and such.. BTC is cheapest, fastest and no head aches.

ATT is severely throttled in the Bahamas.. BTC has no throttling that I saw. We had limited success with our Bullet as there are few Wifis to connect with.

You can easily add GB as you need right through the BTC phone.. it is really slick. Save time by buying a phone for $90 from BTC.. use it only for internet.. that's what we did.

We will use it again.. we leave in August..
Good luck..
Bryce


----------



## Vasco (Sep 24, 2006)

Bryce is correct. Cellular wifi in the Bahamas is very good now, Don't know when all the folks in this thread who say it isn't were there last but it has changed a lot and all for the better. BTC is the only way to go. I can get it most places in the Exumas except the Park area but as we don't go there anymore it doesn't affect us. Check where the BTC towers are. Good most of the way down the Exuma chain. The service goes down occasionally, I think last season it went down once or twice but it's usually for a few hours at most. As for "stealing" wifi with a good antenna, forget about it. Everybody's wised up now and you won't find an unlocked signal. And you can use skype with BTC. No problem. But it's best if you talk a lot to get your friends/relatives to call you as incoming is not charged to your calling minutes. Only outgoing calls are charged. Most countries have a much better rate for calling the Bahamas than the Bahamas has for calling out. Telecommunications is rapidly changing for the better in the Bahamas. A lot different from the old Batelco days of $1.50 a minute to call Canada if you could find a working phone booth. But I'm going back a few years here. 

Take an unlocked phone with you and get a BTC sim for $15 when you get there.


----------



## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

"Cellular wifi in the Bahamas is very good now"
Rick, I think that confuses the issue. WiFi is WiFi, and the OP is looking for WiFi from routers that are tied into the internet, usually by cable or broadband service.
Having a cell phone that provides a limited local WiFi hotspot just isn't the same thing. No matter how good the cellular "backbone" is, the cell phone itself isn't going to compete with a real router, you can't piggyback onto it with the same speed and power. And on some systems, the phone can be used as either a hot spot OR a phone, they don't allow you to run it as a hotspot all day long unless you are disabling the use of it as a phone.

Rich makes a very good point about a separate disposable computer: Open WiFi routers with tempting names and no encryption are just asking for trouble. Too many people know how to use them to access your computer and clean out anything of value on it, or implant malware. Add "kids" to the mix, and the "school" computer probably should be treated as a leper, with a cloned image of the system (on spare drive or dvd) so it can be re-imaged from time to time, as an extra precaution.

I'd also suggest that if a lot of material is going to be downloaded and printed out for use on a boat? Buy a LASER printer and use that, the resulting pages will not run when they get damp. Some inkjets do OK around moisture (HP, Epson) while others (Brother) run like watercolors, even after aging.


----------



## Vasco (Sep 24, 2006)

hellosailor said:


> "Cellular wifi in the Bahamas is very good now"
> Rick, I think that confuses the issue. WiFi is WiFi, and the OP is looking for WiFi from routers that are tied into the internet, usually by cable or broadband service.
> g.


Sorry, should have said cellular data. You are wasting your time if you use wifi in the Bahamas. There have been tons of start-ups of wifi services (major centers only) and they have mostly been hit and miss, expensive and unreliable and in many cases money down the drain. For the Bahamas get a phone, no need for expensive antennas and routers. They were the only answer five or ten years ago but are next to useless today.


----------



## Don L (Aug 8, 2008)

I disagree that wifi isn't useful . I was in the Bahamas this past Feb/Mar/Apr and wifi worked pretty good in a Abacos near places that have tourists on a pay as you go plan. I definitely got my $2/wk use out of wifi in Marsh Harbor with the number of movies we streamed.

But in the Exumas it was mostly useless except at a marina as long as they had a good system to somewhere else that had good service


----------



## FreeAgent (Apr 19, 2017)

Don0190 said:


> I disagree that wifi isn't useful . I was in the Bahamas this past Feb/Mar/Apr and wifi worked pretty good in a Abacos near places that have tourists on a pay as you go plan.


It's been a while, but we had similar experience.

Places I actually recall using wifi were Hopetown, Marsh Harbour, Treasure Cay and Manjack (Free!) But probably available at Green Turtle, Guana and Man-o-war too.

At some we had open wifi. Others had to pay. None of it was that great, but good enough for our purposes. Used it for Skype calls and emails mainly. No doubt things have changed since we were there. Hopefully for the better.

In some areas to the North (Walkers Cay?), we couldn't get the VHF weather reports. Sometimes boats would do a relay.


----------

