Dear BOFH in training,
You would be amazed - and possibly horrified - how many ships rely on cell-phones for data communications and the same phone and UHF/VHF radio for voice, none of which is any use more than a few dozen kilometers offshore. By and large their impecunious and/or tight-fisted owners see no need to splash money on open ocean data communications, except grudgingly providing the AIS beacons they are legally obligated to have.
The market for always-on high speed Internet access at sea is in fact quite small - much less than the airline sector. I'm sure it will happen, but it will take a while, SpaceX will make a lot more money much sooner by getting the major airlines hooked up.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
