As Carnival Corporation and SES Networks come together to provide the most amount of bandwidth ever to a mobile platform (the Regal Princess), the goal is to bust the myth around connectivity problems on cruise vacations.

“There has always been a liability associated with cruising and that is connectivity,” said John Padgett, chief experience and innovation officer at Carnival Corporation.

Padgett said the idea around breaking the bandwidth record was to “blow away” any myths around connectivity at sea.

Combining with SES Networks, Padgett said the company was a technology enablement partner that could deliver.

“We want to take connectivity out of the equation,” he added, noting the keys to customer connectivity success was fast internet that is reliable and affordable (pricing is listed at $9.99 per day).

Using a combination of satellites from SES Networks, Carnival is showing what it has the potential to do, planning to provide at least 1.5 gigabits per second of bandwidth to the Regal Princess as it sits docked off Ocean Cay on Monday, February 26.

Steve Collar, CEO at SES Networks, said the speed test was “on the way” to 2 gigabits per second, in a post on Twitter on Monday morning. 

Later in the day, Collar said the speed hit 2.25 gigabits per second, and peaked at 2.6 gigabits per second.

The Regal Princess is part of the Medallion-class of ships with MedallionNet. There is no timeline to putting the technology on the rest of the fleet, Padgett noted. He also explained that other Carnival brands have access to the technology, and could implement it at their own discretion.