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Using your phone as a hot spot on cruises

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Using your phone as a hot spot on cruises

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Old May 30, 2018, 4:07 pm
  #16  
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 2,304
Originally Posted by boerne
I am not sure how to improve a signal using a phone hotspot in a cabin. It seems in my experimentation that the metal structure of the ship will block cell signals depending on where the tower is. There are apps that will help you locate the antenna. When the signal looks blocked, I typically put the phone/ipad on the veranda...

The most amazing phone hotspot use for us was in the Beagle Channel many miles from Ushuaia.
Probably could improve the signal using a mifi with good external antennas in the antenna ports, mounted to balcony railing. I also tend to use a bit of cellular data on sailaway or arrival, depending on the ship's satellite system, congestion, and bandwidth. Celebrity upgraded most of the Solstice class satellite systems and RCCL's Quantum class is also fairly modern (though Celebrity charges a whole lot more :/ ) I can usually latch onto a network in port and keep on using it for ~ 20 min upon sailaway while most people are hogging the ship's wifi because their phones didn't have signal in port/afraid of data overages. After that, the ship's wifi is less congested around dinner time while people are dining and late at night.

A VPN subscription is < $10 a month to secure your browsing on public wifi networks. It can also help to have VPN to position yourself "local to home" for online banking or downloading a show via Netflix/Prime for offline viewing.
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