Musk’s Starlink Beams to Container Ships So Crews Can Web Surf
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Elon Musk's satellite internet service is heading deeper into one of the world's oldest and vast economic frontiers: the high seas.Hapag-Lloyd AG, the biggest container shipping line based in Germany, said Thursday it will install SpaceX's Starlink service aboard the ships it owns and manages after a pilot program involving four vessels proved successful. Charters won't receive the service under the current plan. According to Alphaliner data, 122 of the 259 ships that Hapag-Lloyd operates are company-owned. For crews that spend months at sea, reliable on-board connectivity is a luxury if it's available at all, partly hinging on proximity to land-based networks. During the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, seafarers' sense of isolation only intensified as they kept working...