Reply To: Cruise onboard communicating
@ReverendgB Right now, we’re all waiting with bated breath for @paulandstorm to announce the results of meetings with the cruise line and MTN, its Internet provider. MTN normally offers Internet connectivity by the minute, which means that it’s prohibitively expensive to keep a low bandwidth service like Twitter running all day even though it sends and receives relatively little data. It also means that if the provider’s service is slow, you pay more for the same amount of data (which really isn’t fair). We may be able to get a discount on the per-minute service, or (better) buy connectivity by the megabyte rather than by the minute.
It’s already possible to get a service that charges by volume via another route, so there’s precedent for it. Several cellular carriers have contracted with MTN to provide data service by the megabyte. You sign up with your cell phone operator for a certain number of megabytes, then connect to MTN’s onboard cellular microcell via an “aircard” or a tethered cell phone to access the Net. The only disadvantage of this: the shipboard microcell turns off when the ship is in a port where local cellular service is available, to avoid interference issues. (The Wi-Fi probably stays on, because there’s no reason to turn it off in port.)
I’m hoping that @paulandstorm can (1) negotiate Wi-Fi service from MTN that’s metered by data volume and will work in port; and (2) secure permission for Sea Monkeys to run a local Twitter-like shipboard messaging service on the ship’s Wi-Fi network.
As for using Skype on the Net from a beachfront restaurant in Aruba: the expert on this will be @RandalSchwartz (though I don’t personally see why you couldn’t).