Travelers on the Alaska Marine Highway’s ferry Columbia got an unexpected Christmas present on a recent trip from Bellingham to Southeast Alaska: Wi-Fi. The Alaska Department of Transportation announced Thursday that the 418-foot flagship of the state ferry system was the first to launch the new free service.
DOT says more than 450 users connected over the first week it was available. One of those users was independent state Rep. Dan Ortiz, an outgoing lawmaker from Ketchikan who’s been a longtime advocate for the Marine Highway. Ortiz said the purser's announcement that passengers could log onto onboard Wi-Fi came as a surprise — but he said he was more than happy to spend some of the voyage streaming Suits on Netflix.
“It was amazingly effective. It worked quite well,” he said. “Everything from streaming videos like you can at home, to receiving phone calls, to making phone calls. It was really quite good.”
The connection comes from SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service. State officials say it’s uniquely suited to the Inside Passage: Starlink satellites are in low Earth orbit and pass directly overhead, unlike older systems using geostationary satellites that are frequently blocked by mountains.
Crews installed 37 access points throughout the steel vessel during a recently completed overhaul at the Vigor Alaska shipyard in Ketchikan. State officials say Wi-Fi is available throughout the Columbia, from the solarium to the dining room, staterooms and crew quarters.
The ferry system continues to struggle with short staffing and service cutbacks, and Ortiz said he’s had doubts about the state’s commitment to sustaining the service into the future. But Ortiz said the decision to add Wi-Fi was a good sign.
“It shows me that … management of the Marine Highway System is looking to update and to, you know, make things more accessible to passengers,” he said. “That tells me, then, that they're committed to the future of the Marine Highway System.”
Alaska got $5 million in federal funding from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to put Wi-Fi on vessels throughout the fleet, and that effort is ongoing. State officials say they plan to expand Wi-Fi to the ferries Aurora and LeConte in the future but did not say when they expect to launch service for passengers.
