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Using Cell Phone as a Hot Spot


Bernbun29
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All, I am going to be in the Caribbean but have started a new job and am going to have to conduct some meetings. Can I use my AT&T cell phone as a hot spot for audio and screen sharing while conducting a meeting via Skype? I know this is my vacation, but I have some work commitments, please no negative comments.

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On the ship, you still have to go through the ship. Unless you have a satellite phone, there is no way around that. Internet quality has improved considerably over the last few years, but programs like Skype are very sensitive to signal strength fluctuations...your conversation will be rough.

 

Ashore is another topic, for which there are many choices. The standard suggestion here is to follow the crew. They know the best wifi locations.

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All, I am going to be in the Caribbean but have started a new job and am going to have to conduct some meetings. Can I use my AT&T cell phone as a hot spot for audio and screen sharing while conducting a meeting via Skype? I know this is my vacation, but I have some work commitments, please no negative comments.

 

Assuming that you have data roaming, AND that deal includes TETHERING, then no problem when you are in port and connected to the local 4G network.

 

 

However, not withstanding the cost, no chance when you are on ship, UNLESS, you are close enough to the shore to get a connection to a mast on the local 4G network.

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If you are at a usvi or Puerto Rico port your cell service will be just like at home. If at sea, the connection will be slow and video streaming not possible. Even when their faster service is available it wont be good for any kind of video or voice conferencing as satellite internet service has huge latency...so any live communication will be like you're talking to someone on the moon i.e. a second or so delay each direction, so streaming will be very choppy and communication will be easier by email.

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And if you manage to do it atsea with your cell phone you will be using the Princess at sea service and it is very very expensive. Hope it is a company phone.

 

Not sure it would even work (with hot spot/tethering) but if it works you may well find yourself paying $8 a minute (or more) if you are using the cell service (which is different then the WiFi service).

 

Hank

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It would be very expensive to use your cell phone as a hot spot on a ship. On the Regal/Royal the cell tower is maintained by WMS and they do offer packages for AT&T customers (they are owned by AT&T). All the other Princess ships use MCP, Maritime Communications Partners, and no packages exist. In both cases the charges are high for each MB used. Voice calls for example are $2.50/minute.

 

The WiFi service on the ship is very slow and you have to buy a package of minutes. I have seen pax using skype but I am not sure how robust it was. WiFi speed is dependent on how many of your fellow pax are trying to use it and can be very slow with frequent connection drops. It is going to be very difficult to hold a meeting on board the ship with people back home.

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All, I am going to be in the Caribbean but have started a new job and am going to have to conduct some meetings. Can I use my AT&T cell phone as a hot spot for audio and screen sharing while conducting a meeting via Skype? I know this is my vacation, but I have some work commitments, please no negative comments.

If you have the liberty to set up the call times, then I would suggest looking into major hotels in the ports you will be visiting. Just a thought.

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All, I am going to be in the Caribbean but have started a new job and am going to have to conduct some meetings. Can I use my AT&T cell phone as a hot spot for audio and screen sharing while conducting a meeting via Skype? I know this is my vacation, but I have some work commitments, please no negative comments.

 

What you are suggesting is not financially feasible, and in my opinion, not usually possible.

 

As the ship is at sea, you are forced to use the ship's communications systems.

 

Cell data from you phone will be very slow, and cost $8 - $10 / minute.

The other choice will be using ship wifi to connect to the internet.

The price varies based on how much you buy, but this is in the range of $0.50 / minute.

 

You may find the speed and latency so slow that you can't use vpn, work remotely, etc.

 

The best way to do this would be to schedule meetings when your ship is in port,

and either set up cellular roaming in those countries, or hope to find acceptable

wi-fi on shore.

 

If someone else can run the meeting and you can skype (just voice) into it, that

has the best chance of working.

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All, I am going to be in the Caribbean but have started a new job and am going to have to conduct some meetings. Can I use my AT&T cell phone as a hot spot for audio and screen sharing while conducting a meeting via Skype? I know this is my vacation, but I have some work commitments, please no negative comments.

Princess right now is testing Princessconnect, a new wi-fi internet service with various levels. The top level is supposed to provide unlimited fast wi-fi service that should meet most of your needs at a cost of $29.99/day. The test is on the Grand Princess. No roll out schedule has been announced for other ships in the fleet. Maybe you can call Princess for information on your ship. Below is a link to some recent information

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2550917&highlight=princessconnect

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Princess right now is testing Princessconnect, a new wi-fi internet service with various levels. The top level is supposed to provide unlimited fast wi-fi service that should meet most of your needs at a cost of $29.99/day. The test is on the Grand Princess. No roll out schedule has been announced for other ships in the fleet. Maybe you can call Princess for information on your ship. Below is a link to some recent information

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2550917&highlight=princessconnect

 

I understand what you are saying but, despite what Princess may say in their marketing presentations, on a cruise ship you have to share the available bandwidth with others who may also be 'bandwidth hungry'.

 

 

At sea, you are fundamentally limited by satellite bandwidth which is not unlimited meaning that, despite what the Princess marketing department says, 'unlimited fast Wi-Fi service via a satellite link' is an oxymoron, particularly on a ship with 3000 passengers and 2000 crew.

 

For sure, Princess may indeed be increasing the bandwidth such that, with normal levels of traffic, browsing will become much more responsive BUT, the big questions are how many folks will buy into the marketing speak and try to use their minutes to make video calls to the grandchildren, and how much video traffic can be handled before the lack of bandwidth results in calls dropping out in mid conversation.

Edited by Corfe Mixture
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At sea, you are fundamentally limited by satellite bandwidth which is not unlimited meaning that, despite what the Princess marketing department says, 'unlimited fast Wi-Fi service via a satellite link' is an oxymoron, particularly on a ship with 3000 passengers and 2000 crew.

Not exactly true. Satellite bandwidth is available in large amounts, if you/they are willing to pay. The latency is, however, unavoidable, at least with present technology.

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In perfect conditions (not on a moving ship) satellite internet latency is 1/4 second from the originator to the ground station. This works both sending and receiving for a total of 1/2 second per transmission round trip assuming that the connection is solid and no retransmissions are required (frequent on a moving ship). Then one has to add in the ground latency from the receiving ground antenna to the website server and return. No matter how much they tout "fast internet", the fact of 1/2 second send/receive per packet always will be there under ideal conditions.

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No problem doing what you want to do. But you are making it overly complicated and expensive just use https://www.uberconference.com it only requires 100kbps for perfect connection.which is no problem especially in the carribean. You can even enable file sharing. Anyone can call in from any device.lap top is the best but a smart phone on wifi is fine. I have conferenced all over the world a number of princess ships with no problem. I usually am prepared for the conference and utilize Google sheets a lot which can be updated on the fly and and add chat to the sheet making the meeting go very quickly. Just don't have more than ten folks in the meeting five is ideal

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Thanks to everyone for their responses

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Please come back and share how your experience went.

 

I know many of us have work commitments that even on vacation, require our attention.

So it will be nice to hear of a success story and a protocol to follow. :)

Thanks,

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  • 1 month later...
All, I am going to be in the Caribbean but have started a new job and am going to have to conduct some meetings. Can I use my AT&T cell phone as a hot spot for audio and screen sharing while conducting a meeting via Skype? I know this is my vacation, but I have some work commitments, please no negative comments.

 

I would be telling your new boss where he could shove his job for daring to disrupt your holiday time. It is a total outrage. At the end of the day a company that dares to encroach on their employees holiday time is the type of company that does not look after their employees, treats them like crap and would give you the flick just like that. Far better it is to grow a set and tell your boss where they can shove their job.

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I would be telling your new boss where he could shove his job for daring to disrupt your holiday time. It is a total outrage. At the end of the day a company that dares to encroach on their employees holiday time is the type of company that does not look after their employees, treats them like crap and would give you the flick just like that. Far better it is to grow a set and tell your boss where they can shove their job.

 

 

 

You obviously did not read my original post, I have a new job and agreed to work. I was not looking for ridicule as you provided and said so in my original post. With that being said, good day, all is well, thank you and hope you have a great day!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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You obviously did not read my original post, I have a new job and agreed to work. I was not looking for ridicule as you provided and said so in my original post. With that being said, good day, all is well, thank you and hope you have a great day!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

No offence intended, but I would never work for a company that showed such disrespect for my personal time. Whether you agreed to it or not is irrelevant, a professional company that really cared about its employees would have told you straight up to go and enjoy your holiday and not worry about work when on your holiday. That as I see it is a total and unforgivable outrage and I would never work for and respect a company that treated its employees like that. You invest a lot of time into your holidays and the time off work allows you to be more relaxed, refreshed and deliver a more productive performance at work.

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