Wireless World: Never lost at sea

"I can't tell you how many times my clients ask me if they will have cellular coverage and Internet access at a resort, on a cruise or on an island during vacation," said Mary Pace, director of corporate accounts at GlobalStar Travel Management Corp.

Last week SeaMobile Inc., a developer of at-sea wireless, data and Internet communications, disclosed that the Federal Communications Commission had approved its acquisition of Maritime Telecommunications Network Inc., a satellite-based broadband purveyor based in Miramar, Fla.

"Cruise travelers can take their own cell phones, BlackBerry devices, and laptops, and read their hometown papers (online), watch live TV, access their bank accounts through onboard ATMs and much more," said William D. Marks, chief executive officer of SeaMobile, which is based in Seattle. "It's truly a new day at sea."

These offerings are apparently in response to market demand. A survey by Management Recruiters International, one of the leading headhunting firms in the United States, found that of 730 executives polled, a whopping 47 percent refused to use all of their allotted vacation time -- due to job pressures. Another 35 percent said they wouldn't even think of taking a vacation, as they had too much to do at the office.

Since seven-figure executives are a prime target of the travel industry, the industry has created a way to let its customers take their office with them, relieving their anxiety about completing important projects while they play shuffleboard and drink pina coladas on the deck of the Love Boat and her sister ships.

Airlines have been executing this same strategy for about 18 months now -- with some significant results. An in-flight Internet service was launched by a major airplane maker in May 2004 and is now offered on more than 180 routes around the world on airlines like Lufthansa, SAS, El Al and others.

A survey released in recent weeks by Boeing indicates that of 3,200 global business travelers surveyed, 83 percent said the availability of wireless connections to the Internet aboard an aircraft was having a significant impact on their choice of carrier. The primary reason for 44 percent of respondents was to remain productive during transcontinental or transoceanic flights, according to the survey, conducted with Burke Research.

The survey also determined that 90 percent of respondents accessed their work e-mail while in-flight, and, most interestingly, did so via secure, virtual private networks. Another 76 percent of executive travelers accessed their personal e-mail while in the sky at 35,000 feet, and 41 percent instant messaged their family and friends from the plane.

The wireless services in the sky provide "airlines with new ways to differentiate their brand and retain and attract new customers," said Laurette Koellner, president of Connexion by Boeing, the Seattle-based wireless Internet unit of the Chicago-based airplane maker.

Cruise ships, including those of Oceania Cruises, are now accessing this niche. According to the Cruise Line International Association, cruise ships carried 2.63 million guests during the first quarter of last year, an increase of 8.9 percent. Thus, there is a "growing communications opportunity at sea," a spokesman for SeaMobile told Wireless World.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International