Carnival to Provide Cell Phone Service

[Jason]

Carnival to Provide Cell Phone Service From All of Its Cruise Ships

Carnival Cruise Lines on June 22nd became the latest cruise line to fully embrace the cell phone era, announcing that passengers will be able to make calls from any Carnival cruise ship, using any major cellular service, from anywhere in the world by early 2007.

While this service currently is available only on the Carnival Triumph, Carnival said it is making the service available on all 21 of its ships as part of a deal with Wireless Maritime Services, a joint venture of Cingular Wireless and Martime Telecommunications Network.

NCL was the first cruise line to bring passengers on North American cruises the ability to use their cell phones, introducing the service on the Norwegian Sun in the fall of 2004.

Royal Caribbean and Celebrity cruise lines began rolling out the service several months later, and and expect to have cellular service on all of their ships by the end of this year.

All three of the major cruise lines -- as well as five smaller lines -- are providing cellular service in conjunction with Wireless Maritime Services, which in only two years has come to totally dominate the business of facilitating cellular service from aboard cruise ships.

Wireless Maritime deploys from 30 to 60 antennas throughout each cruise ship, depending on the size of the ship, and these antennas transmit the calls from passenger cell phones to the cruise ship's satellite transmitter, which transfers the calls into the cellular network.

While international roaming fees, generally in the $2-per-minute range, apply to cellular calls made from the ships (and depending on your plan long-distance charges may apply as well), the rate is far better than using the phone in your cabin where a call back to the shore can run anywhere from $5 to $25 per minute.

Source: Cruise Ship Reports

[Joanandjoe]

Thanks, Jason. This was covered in the thread "Cell phones at sea on Carnival".