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Old Apr 21, 2025 | 3:06 pm
  #20  
cardsqc
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Originally Posted by Mike Jacoubowsky
GigSky may be an even better deal, if you have an unlocked phone. And if you have an older phone lying around, you can get that one unlocked by the carrier and hotspot off it (yes, GigSky allows hot-spotting so you don't need multiple accounts if more than one of you).
https://www.gigsky.com/data-cruises

What I don't understand is why the cruise lines allow these new plans, which seriously undermine their onboard wifi profit center. I believe all of the new connectivity-at-sea options that work through your phone (not through a satellite receiver) use the ship's "cellular at sea" GSM connection.
Honestly, I don't find these plans that have been announced recently by GigSky and ATT to really be at all competitive. Ok, yeah, maybe if you use no data at all over that time period? But if you're going to need to do anything with data, the GigSky prices are pretty obnoxious in my opinion. I saw someone hawking this on youtube as an alternative to the "high priced" internet on the ships, and about the only thing I can figure is they clearly were being paid to promote it.

Now, I'm not saying that the cruise line plans are all that reasonable, but realistically, even since most of them have gone with starlink, other than price, they've been pretty decent. I have no idea what speeds the cellular at sea stuff is getting, but starlink has definitely in general been enough to be able to do things like zoom or streaming. (And of course, if you need to do either of those, you're going to blow through the gigsky data allotment in no time at all). Obviously some lines are better than others on pricing, but realistically, if you're going to need streaming capability, you're probably still far better off on the cruise line plans that the cell phone plans that have been revealed so far.)
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