I’ve been conducting real-world testing of my marine cellular system using a Peplink MAX BR1 Pro 5G and Antenna MAX. The system draws only about
6 watts, is
fully waterproof, and continues operating while the boat is underway at approximately
28 knots. I also use the Peplink router to run Starlink when at anchor or at the dock, which costs me an additional 28 watts of power. I run cellular year round on my boat.
5G SA means
5G Standalone. The connection operates directly on a 5G core network without requiring LTE.
5G NSA means
5G Non-Standalone. It uses an LTE connection as the anchor while adding 5G for additional capacity and performance.
The results below were recorded in real-world cruising conditions, including anchorages, open water, and while underway. Starlink was disconnected during these tests.
A few observations:
- The best overall result was 313/44.5 Mbps at Saratoga Passage on T-Mobile n41.
- The best upload result was 48 Mbps at Cortes Bay, BC while roaming on Rogers.
- Deer Harbor had the best RF quality, around 22 dB SINR, with an 88/25 Mbps result on n66 5G SA.
- North of Lasqueti Island, BC was unusual because upload exceeded download: 24.6/29.1 Mbps while underway.
- Ganges had decent signal strength but only 16.6/5.61 Mbps, showing that signal bars alone do not predict performance.
- Even the weakest location, Shallow Bay on Sucia, still delivered approximately 5/5 Mbps.
- Canadian roaming throughput can be excellent, but latency was generally much higher than the Washington tests (due to roaming plan).
- So far, the limiting factors appear to be spectrum, SINR, tower loading, network architecture, and roaming—not the Peplink BR1 Pro 5G or Antenna MAX.
SINR means
Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio.
The easiest way to picture it is this:
Imagine you’re sitting in a bar talking about boats. There’s some background noise, but you can still carry on a conversation without much trouble. That’s good SINR. Then the band starts playing at 6 p.m. The person across from you is still talking just as loudly, but now all the additional noise makes the conversation much harder to understand. That’s poor SINR.
At
Shallow Bay, the problem wasn’t simply weak signal strength. The modem was dealing with a noisy RF environment, likely including reflected signals bouncing off the water. Those reflections can interfere with the direct signal, making it harder for the modem to distinguish the useful transmission from the surrounding noise.
So a boat can show decent signal strength and still perform poorly if the SINR is bad.
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