Monetizing connectivity - A marina can get additional income by providing a great WiFi Internet service for boat owners and here is how

In the evolving landscape of maritime connectivity, WiFi has emerged as a critical service for marinas throughout the United States, addressing the sophisticated digital needs of modern boat owners.

Today's nautical enthusiasts require far more than basic Internet access; they demand robust, high-speed connections capable of supporting data-intensive activities that significantly exceed the limitations of mobile phone networks.

Boat owners rely on marina WiFi to update complex electronic navigation charts, download comprehensive weather forecasts and tide information, stream high-definition radar and sonar data, and even conduct professional video conferences while docked. These requirements necessitate substantial data throughput that traditional 5G mobile plans simply cannot consistently provide, especially in coastal and marine environments where cellular signals are often weak or intermittent.

While satellite internet solutions like Starlink Marine have entered the market, offering promising high-speed connectivity, their widespread adoption remains limited due to prohibitive hardware costs (in the thousands of dollars for initial setup) plus monthly service fees where the prices are constantly changing and determined by the volume of data used. The global coverage of such satellite services is still developing, making marina WiFi an indispensable resource for the majority of recreational and professional boaters. The marina's Internet service has transformed from a mere convenience to an essential utility, bridging the connectivity gap and meeting the increasingly sophisticated technological expectations of modern maritime communities. 

How premium WiFi with Guest Internet WiFi controllers are transforming marinas in the USA and abroad

By providing reliable, flexible and high-performance WiFi, marinas not only enhance their value proposition but also cater to a tech-savvy clientele that views Internet access as fundamental to their boating experience.

Recognizing this demand is important; virtually all marinas now offer some level of WiFi service, though the quality and coverage vary significantly. At the basic end of the spectrum, some facilities provide limited access through a single short-range router, often located in the marina office, requiring boat owners to physically relocate to connect.

While this kind of setup is better than no service, it falls short of modern expectations. More progressive marinas have invested in comprehensive WiFi infrastructure, deploying multiple wireless access points strategically positioned throughout the property. This advanced approach ensures seamless, high-quality coverage across all berths, allowing boat owners to stay connected from the comfort of their vessels.

As marinas continue to evolve, those offering premium WiFi services with Guest Internet WiFi controllers are likely to gain a competitive edge, attracting tech-savvy boaters and potentially opening new revenue streams through premium connectivity packages. This charge can be included in the daily dock service or charged separately. Several charging methods can be implemented with Guest Internet WiFi controllers as they offer the flexibility a marina requires.

Even though some boat owners have a Starlink marine antenna installed on their boats the monthly service data charge is high and so they will still want to use the marina WiFi when their boat is docked and reduce the cost of data over the Starlink marine service.

Critical considerations for implementation of the WiFi service

When a marina plans to offer or upgrade a WiFi service for boat owners the following basic issues have to be considered and a decision made.

  • What type of Internet connection is available? ISP fiber? satellite (Starlink)? Etc.
  • What is the range of WiFi coverage required for the boat dock area?
  • How to ensure that small boats behind big boats get WiFi access?
  • How will the service be provided to boat owners? Included with the dockage fee? Charged to each individual? Or a combination of these? Guest Internet WiFi controllers offer all these alternatives.
  • If the service is charged how will the charge be made? Online credit card? sale of vouchers? Point of sale terminal (PoS) in the marina store? Or all methods? Guest Internet WiFi controllers can do all that.
  • If online credit card payment, which payment processor to use?
  • Offer WiFi range extenders for boat owners?
  • Provide advertising for marina and partner services on the WiFi login page?

Providing an Internet service for boat owners has significant investment costs and operating expenses. All marinas charge boat owners for the WiFi Internet service. The cost might be included in the daily berth fee, or the boat owner may purchase the WiFi Internet service as required with a Guest Internet WiFi controller.

Boats that are not docked in the marina but anchored close to the marina will also want to use the WiFi Internet service and so the marina should install a WiFi antenna that is pointing to the bay area outside the marina. This antenna will be installed on a tower to give a large area of coverage.

Multi-ISP Internet strategies for remote marinas

Often marinas are in remote locations and an Internet data connection such as fiber is not available. Any data connection over a copper wire will have a slow speed due to the distance of the connection. There are geo-stationary satellite Internet data services such as HughesNet available at some locations, and low earth orbit Internet data services such as Starlink available at almost all locations. The marina can combine two or more ISP data connections to obtain a faster Internet service. Internet connections are combined using a dual-WAN or quad-WAN Internet controller that provides load balance and fail-over. Guest Internet GIS-R6/R10/R20 and R40 controller products have multi-WAN features.

Designing the WiFi network: WiFi coverage range

The WiFi coverage area is the first decision for the marina owner, spend little and give WiFi Internet access only in the marina office, or spend what it takes to provide WiFi Internet for all berths. Each marina has a unique design and so requires a unique design for the installation of wireless access points. It is necessary for a network engineer to make a site survey to determine the locations of all wireless access points. The wireless access points are connected back to the marina office by Ethernet cable, and powered over the Ethernet cable. The maximum distance for an Ethernet cable segment is 100m. Greater distances require an Ethernet switch to join two segments. The Ethernet switch needs power.

A wireless access point can be installed several 100’s of meters from the marina office by installing a wireless bridge, which is a point-to-point wireless link between the marina office and the distant wireless access point. The distant wireless access point will require power. The network engineer will analyze all design considerations to plan the network installation.

Guest Internet has great STAR kits, which come with WiFi controllers and wireless access points suitable for some installations.

How to ensure that small boats get WiFi access?

Marinas have one further issue to consider when planning the location of wireless access points. A big boat will block the WiFi signal to a small boat that is moored behind it. A marina will allocate different berth sizes to accommodate boat sizes.

The figure below shows a marina office with the WiFi antenna mounted on the office roof. It is clear that boats moored closer to the office will block the WiFi signal to boats further to the rear of the marina. A better solution would be to install a directional antenna high up on the roof of a nearby building to beam the WiFi signal down to all boats in the marina.

The photograph shows a marina office with the WiFi antenna mounted on the office roof. It is clear that boats moored closer to the office will block the WiFi signal to boats further to the rear of the marina.

The network engineer has to consider the sizes of boats that will be moored in the marina to ensure that large boats do not block the signal for small boats. This may require the installation of additional wireless access points.

Contracting with an Internet service provider (ISP)

The critical problem that the marina owner will face is contracting with one or more Internet service providers. It might be possible to find an ISP who can install a fiber connection to the marina. If there is no fiber then it might be possible for an ISP to provide a gigabit speed wireless point-to-point connection to the marina from the ISP’s location. If no ISP services are available then the alternative is a satellite data connection; either a geo-stationary service, a low earth orbit service, or both.

Guest Internet controllers permit up to two simultaneous ISP Internet connections, and in the case of the GIS-R40 up to four Internet connections can be shared between users to improve the Internet performance.

The marina may need a Starlink priority account for the data service and will pay for data downloaded at $250 per TB of data.

Methods of administering the WiFi service with Guest Internet WiFi controllers

Internet service providers have a data speed limit, which is the maximum data speed that they can provide for the Internet service. With satellite providers there may also be a monthly data limit. In order to share the Internet connection between many boat owners it is necessary to set a lower data speed limit and possibly a data download limit for each user. If user data speed limits are not configured then the ISP data connection may become congested, resulting in users loosing their Internet connection.

The Guest Internet WiFi controllers can issue access codes with the following parameters:

  • Duration of user access in hours, days, weeks, months.
  • Maximum download and upload speeds.
  • Maximum download and upload byte count.
  • Number of people permitted to use the code, from 1 to unlimited.
  • Start date and time when the code can be used; default is when the code is first used.

The Guest Internet controller products provide several methods to generate the access codes. Each access code is unique and cannot be shared with others.

  • Print access code on demand using the Guest Internet PoS software in the marina office.
  • Print a batch of vouchers with access codes to sell at the marina office.
  • Download codes to print on marina documents.
  • Purchase an access code online using a credit card.
  • Purchase an access code via a reservation system when the dock reservation is made.
  • These methods can be combined as required by the marina business.

Methods of charging for the WiFi service

A marina has a large expense to provide WiFi Internet, that includes the initial installation investment, which has to be amortized, and ongoing operating costs that include the ISP charges and maintenance of the system. When the marina is using the Starlink priority data plan the monthly data charges might exceed $10,000.

The cost of the WiFi Internet service has to be recovered by the marina, and there are two methods to do this.

  • Include an Internet fee as part of the daily berth charges.
  • Charge each user for access to the Internet.
  • Or both.

The fair approach is to charge each user for Internet access. A method of charging for the Internet online is essential as there will be boats anchored outside the marina who are not paying a docking fee to the marina, but who want Internet access. Large boats docked in the marina may have a large crew and so one charge per berth is not fair for the marina. The marina also has to ensure that each user gets a unique access code that cannot be shared. If access is not controlled then the marina will be providing free Internet for the neighborhood which will degrade the quality of the service and increase the operating expense for the marina.

The marina has users with different Internet requirements. There are users who just want to check email so need little bandwidth, then there are users who might need to download gigabytes of data files to update chart plotter equipment. The marina can offer differentiated services for each type of customer. Offer a slow data speed at a low cost for the email user and offer a high speed connection at a high cost for the user downloading large files.

Guest Internet WiFi controllers provide all the methods that the marina needs to charge for the WiFi Internet service to recover the investment and operational costs and make a profit by providing the WiFi Internet service.

Online payment options for more flexibility

It is essential that the marina WiFi Internet service include the sale of Internet connections online using a credit card. This eliminates the marina having to provide access code vouchers in the store and also permits a boat anchored offshore to purchase Internet access.

Guest Internet WiFi controllers provide an online credit charge system using a Paypal business account. Paypal was chosen because the service is the only one available in the 65+ countries where Guest Internet products are installed. All other credit card charging gateways are country specific and each country has several credit card processors so it is not possible to provide gateways for them all. However, Paypal has a few limitations that the marina owner should be aware of.

  • The percentage charged for each Paypal transaction is higher than other card processing services.
  • The interface provided by Paypal to purchase an access code is ‘clunky’ and some users find difficult to use.
  • Not all mobile devices are compatible with the Paypal payment interface.

For these reasons Guest Internet provides:

Application Program Interfaces (API’s) that can be used by the marina to charge a credit card via the marina's preferred bank and credit card processor. The process to use the API is identical to the installation of a PoS terminal. The technician who installed and maintains the marina's PoS terminals will be able to provide the necessary services to the marina to use the same credit card charging system that the marina PoS uses. Although this is an extra installation cost for the marina, the cost will be recovered quickly by getting lower credit card processing fees.

WiFi range extender sales with Agean

Even with good WiFi coverage throughout the marina, the boat owner has to sit on deck to access the Internet. The WiFi signal does not penetrate inside the boat. For this reason many boat owners install a WiFi range extender that provides the boat owner with WiFi Internet inside the boat. The most popular range extenders for boats are manufactured by Aigean. The Aigean LD-700AC model is shown in the next photograph and the link shows the product on their website; https://aigean.com/products/wireless-clients/ld-7000ac 

Aigean Networks - LD-7000ac All-in-One Wireless Client

It will be beneficial for the marina to sell and install the Aigean products for boat owners. The sales and service is an additional income stream for the marina, and in addition the purchase of Internet access will increase as new users are added.

WiFi login page advertising with Guest Internet WiFi controllers

The marina WiFi Internet system will present a login page to each boat owner when connecting to the WiFi service. The login page is real estate that the marina can commercialize. Most marinas sell various types of services to boat owners in addition to providing the boat docks. Many marinas provide space for other businesses that provide service to marina customers, plus other businesses are located close to the marina. The businesses range from restaurants to boat engine repairs.

The marina can advertise in-house services via the login page to push the sales of those services and increase the sales of the marina business. A marina can also sell the login page advertising space to businesses that provide services for the marina's customers.

A marina WiFi Internet infrastructure design

An example of a marina WiFi installation that provides Internet access for boat owners is shown in the following diagram. The design shows a Guest Internet GIS-R20 controller, which is popular for marina installations that might have hundreds of users accessing the Internet.

An example of a marina WiFi installation that provides Internet access for boat owners is shown in the diagram

One or more ISP Internet connections that may include a satellite service are shown in the diagram. A number of wireless access points are distributed throughout the marina, with possible wireless bridges to extend the distance of WiFi coverage. A computer connects to the Guest Internet WiFi controller to generate codes and monitor the service. Guest Internet also provides a free cloud service that can also be used to generate access codes.

In addition to managing, sharing and authenticating the Internet service for users, Guest Internet products have several important features that help the marina provide the best possible Internet service for users.

  1. Failure monitoring; the Guest Internet controller and cloud can monitor all wireless access points for failure and also monitor the Guest Internet controller and the ISP connections for failure. An alert message is sent to the owner immediately that a failure occurs permitting a prompt restoration of the service.
  2. A powerful firewall that prevents abuse of the service. Features include prevention of access code sharing, prevention of copyright file sharing (essential with the Starlink service), block network access to devices that have certain types of virus installed, and provide a PCI DSS compliant firewall to prevent the WiFi service users getting access to the marina computers and PoS systems.
  3. Comprehensive reporting that shows the use of the network and provides performance statistics.
  4. Cloud management that permits a remote service technician to provide maintenance services for the marina WiFi system.
  5. Electively block websites and website categories that might be offensive or not permitted in the country of operation.

Conclusion

This article should provide the marina owner with the essential information to embark upon a WiFi Internet installation or to upgrade an existing WiFi installation that no longer meets the customers requirements.

If you have questions about your marina installation please contact us via our email: info@wispzone.com and we will be delighted to help you

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