Ship's Internet Access - The Untold Truth

this episode is brought to you by sim for crew deleting network in providing international sim cards to seafarers in this day and age internet access can already be considered as a commodity every day more and more people prefer to go online for communication entertainment shopping food financial transactions and many other things for seafarers internet access is very important as it provides them the means to stay connected to their families and friends at home and keep themselves updated on almost everything they have left behind while they are stuck working on board a ship for months at a time simply put it's as close as they could get to having a social life which we all know it's necessary to maintain good mental health on board a cargo ship however internet access is something that is still very rare as most ships still don't have their own Wi-Fi equipment and the great number of ship owners have no intention to install them on board their vessels [Music] hi there guys in this episode I'm going to tell you the truth about internet access onboard Merchant Marine ships but before that I just like to say thanks to simper Cruz for sponsoring this video SimCorp crew is a prepaid global SIM card which provides voice SMS and internet unless you save up to 90% on roaming costs the sim cards are pre activated and can be used immediately around the world and comes pre-loaded with $10 worth of credit it works in 178 countries and comes with different internet data bundles depending on your location you can top up your credit or purchase internet bundles through your website or through their different partners worldwide another good thing is that their SIM cards don't expire so it's really convenient for seafarers to bring them along every time they sign on for another contract for more details you can visit sim for cruise website and their facebook page link is down in the description at present there are no regulations yet requiring ships to have mandatory internet access for crew members which is why a great number of companies never even bothered to install them on board in the first place in fact in the past I have personally heard ship owners representatives saying that they won't install internet facilities unless they are forced to do so by regulations I know right although there are a few companies that have been proactive on this issue and went ahead and provided internet facilities some of them even gave access for free and with a generous data allocation some even with unlimited access and that is very good however some very shrewd companies who also anticipated that this will eventually become a requirement also installed Wi-Fi on board their ships but it's very little data allocation and worse the crew themselves will have to pay for the overpriced cost how overpriced again I have personally experienced having Wi-Fi on board that will charge you 20 US dollars 490 that's 9 0 megabytes I mean seriously 490 MB you could browse photos on your Facebook feed probably for about 10 minutes and then it's all gone so if you want more you have to pay more now this kind of thing happens because companies are expecting the future regulations to have a lot of loopholes and while they will be forced to comply these companies just intend to be compliant based on technicalities for example the maritime labour convention or MLC only mentions that the ship's crew are to be provided reasonable access to ship to shore telephone communications and email and internet facilities we're available with any charges for the use of these services being reasonable in amount reasonable access so how much is that exactly Internet facilities where available so if it's not available on board a ship or in port then I guess it's okay any charges being reasonable and amount again how much exactly is reasonable now if the future of missions of the mlc will state that ships are just required to have internet access for the crew then that is a very broad statement with a lot of great areas they could say that yes our ship has internet access for the crew but regulation never required that it should be for free or there should be a set amount of data allocation per month for each crew member it just says reasonable and that is how they intend to get away with that so hopefully someone from the International Maritime Organization or the international labor organization who is in charge of revising the MLC would be able to watch this video and maybe sympathize with us seafarers regarding internet access and perhaps do what is necessary to improve the quality of life on board all ships by improving internet access but for now because a lot of ships still don't have their own Wi-Fi facilities the only way for the crew to have internet access is to buy local SIM cards whenever their ship arrives important that's well and good but there are lots of times when ships just stay at the Anchorage area or maybe the ship only stays in port for a short time and there's nobody selling SIM cards what to do then well the best solution is to have an international roaming SIM card that will guarantee internet access in any country as long as your cellphone can receive a signal now there are a lot of networks which provide international SIM cards but the fastest-growing among them is SIM for crew with over 120,000 registered users it has been the SIM card of choice for seafarers since 2017 technology is steadily advancing and at present it has reached a state where everyone wants to be connected all the time but in the maritime industry the seafarers seem to always be taken for granted they're always expected to be the first endure allow sacrifices in their working conditions but when it comes to their welfare it seems they're almost always given the minimum sometimes even less there's already a lot of talk about mental health awareness and depression in the maritime industry and I believe that something simple like providing better Internet facilities onboard a ship it's a positive first step among others and will definitely help as it will also improve the seafarers quality of life onboard and connection to their families and loved ones

Channel: Chief MAKOi

Views: 229,493

Rating: 4.8340368 out of 5

Keywords: ship's internet, chief makoi, merchant marine, seaman, seafarer, seaman's life, merchant navy, life at sea, humans at sea, ship, boat, maritime, roaming sim card, international sim card, ofw, ivana alawi, jeffhk, casual navigation, life at sea us navy, internet on cruise ship, life at sea documentary

Id: xijQ-JUvjA8

Length: 8min 31sec (511 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 10 2020