CellAtSea

[petkow]

A couple of weeks ago I was on the "Pride of Bilbao" for a 36h ferry journey from Portsmouth, UK to Bilbao, Spain. I was quite surprised to see a message on my phone saying welcome to the 'Isle of Man'. (Though obviously we were nowhere close). I noticed I had picked up "USA730" on my phone (and had max signal the entire way). There was obviously a transmitter on board. On top deck I noticed a "Telenor" system. (A bit of research later told me about the CellatSea Service), though I am puzzled of the links between Telenor, CellAtSea, USA730, and the IOM???

I recall, 2 years ago, I had been on a ferry from Roscoff in France to Plymouth (UK) and had picked up a 'welcome to Iceland' message and had similar full coverage the entire way. (don't remember the carrier though). Obviously we were nowhere close to Iceland either.

Apart from text messages, I never actually used my phone on either crossing, but does anyone know if such facilities (which I presume are local GSM facilities with a sat linkup) are treated/charged the same as the land-based GSM carriers (in the countries where they are registered, which in my case was IOM and Iceland)? If so are there could there be free incoming options with 09 and Callkey? I presume when Ryanair launches their inflight phone system in the next few months it will be a similar setup.

I was surprised, in the case of either ferry crossing that this service was not really advertised, though people were obviously quite naturally making use of it. I can only imagine the Ferry company gets a decent cut?

Edit: Have a look at this old article: http://www.thedigitalship.com/DSmaga...04/geolink.txt

[DRNewcomb]

It's fairly common to have satellite-linked micro-cells on cruise ships and long-distance ferries. The cost of using these systems ranges from reasonable to rape, you just have to check with your carrier. I tend to forward everything to voicemail and use SMS when roaming on one of these systems.

[sakr]

Take a look at their official website http://www.cellatsea.com/hovedsiden....16286&gid=7520

As far as I know they turn on their service on a board as soon as they leave the "sea border" of a country. Special charges apply for the services they offer (different than roaming on normal "land" network).

[petkow]

Thanks. It is indeed quite fascinating, though I think one can get stung quite badly on charges. A bit of further reading on the subject tells me that Ryanair's system (which goes live in the next few months) will be quite similar but use Monaco Telecom. The company that is supplying them is http://www.onair.aero

The deal means that from mid 2007 (subject to relevant regulatory approval) Ryanair’s passengers will be able to call, text and e-mail using their mobile phones, BlackBerrys™ and Treos™ at rates which will mirror international roaming charges. OnAir intend to fit 50 Ryanair aircraft during the second half of 2007, with the remainder of the fleet receiving installations from early 2008 onwards. Mobile OnAir will be offered on all Ryanair flights across Ryanair’s network of more than 360 routes serving 23 countries across Europe. Ryanair will be the first European airline to offer this mobile telephony to all passengers on all of its 200 plus aircraft fleet.

I wonder what options exist/will exist for evading the likely high costs of roaming on all such "pico-networks" even if they are intended to "mirror international roaming charges"... (however just what this means remains to be seen).

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by petkow

I wonder what options exist/will exist for evading the likely high costs of roaming on all such "pico-networks" even if they are intended to "mirror international roaming charges"... (however just what this means remains to be seen).

And I wonder if those GSM-on-Ships roaming rates "fall" under the latest EU roaming regulations. I know about at least two EU operators that offer maritime services, namely TIM Italy and P&T Luxembourg. I think that the operators can find some legal "workarounds": roaming outside EU i.e. on non-EU/international waters, the ships are registered in "cheap countries" like Bahama, Panama or something like this...