BC Ferries appears to be expanding its Starlink rollout across its fleet, while new details suggest the satellite internet service could eventually make its way to passengers.
As first reported by Tesla North, Starlink Flat High Performance dishes were recently spotted aboard a BC Ferries vessel. The hardware is designed for mobile and maritime use, with the service currently being tested for crew Wi-Fi.
Jianping Pan, a professor of computer science at the University of Victoria, emailed Tesla North with additional details after the story was published.
Pan confirmed the installation he photographed and shared on Reddit is aboard one of the Spirit-class ferries operating between Swartz Bay and Tsawwassen. He also said installation work is underway on a Coastal-class vessel.
When asked whether Starlink remains limited to employees, Pan told Tesla North, “yes, it’s for the crew only now.”
He added that he believes passenger access could eventually follow, noting the amount of Starlink hardware being installed aboard the vessels.
“I believe they will open to the public eventually, as the crew does not need 8 hp3 dishes,” Pan said. Below are two extra photos of the BC Ferries Starlink setup Pan shared with Tesla North.
The Starlink Performance (Gen 3) is a rugged, enterprise-grade terminal featuring an IP69K rating to withstand extreme weather conditions, including those on marine vessels. Measuring 609 x 396 x 40 mm and consuming 75W to 100W of power, it includes dedicated Ethernet ports instead of a built-in Wi-Fi router to support advanced networking setups.
That would mark a major change for BC Ferries passengers. The company discontinued its previous passenger Wi-Fi service in 2021 after the system struggled with demand. BC Ferries later announced plans to use Starlink for crew connectivity, with former CEO Nicolas Jimenez previously pointing to the challenge of providing reliable internet to hundreds or even more than 1,000 passengers at once.
Pan’s comments carry some added weight given his work in satellite networking. At UVic, he specializes in computer networks and distributed systems and leads research into low-Earth-orbit satellite networks.
He also pointed Tesla North to UVic’s LEO-NET testbed, which he described as the “world’s largest leo-sat-net testbed.” The research platform is used to study LEO satellite networks and services including Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb, Amazon Leo and Telesat Lightspeed.
Pan’s team uses the testbed to study how LEO satellite networks perform across different locations and networking environments, giving his comments on the BC Ferries installation added technical context.
A BC Ferries spokesperson told Tesla North: “BC Ferries has implemented high speed-low latency satellite connectivity on all vessels to support operational and business communications, including real-time data transfer between vessels and shore. At this time, this connectivity is only for operational purposes and not for passenger use.”
BC Ferries has now confirmed to Tesla North that the connectivity is operational-only for now. Whether passenger Wi-Fi eventually follows is the question to watch.
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