Telecom Lead Middle-East: African mobile major MTN
Satellite Communications (MTN) and Wireless Maritime
Services (WMS) have jointly announced services to Carnival Breeze, newest
ship of Carnival Cruise Lines.
Both companies have provided integrated voice and data
communications to the ship during its first month in service.
“New services introduced to the Carnival Breeze created
unique challenges to provide ship-wide coverage for telecommunication services,
and we knew there would be a heavy demand for onboard cellular and Internet,
especially in our inaugural month,” said Eric Merz, director of Guest
Technology at Carnival.
MTN and WMS enable more than 4,000 passengers and nearly
1,800 crew members on each sailing of Carnival Breeze.
MTN has provided its VSAT services for the connectivity
demands of the crew, passengers and corporate communications requirements
during its inaugural month.
Carnival Breeze also utilized MTN’s Internet Café
solution delivering access to passengers and crew on mobile devices such as
tablets, smart phones and laptops as well as fixed PCs.
MTN integrated its Internet Café solution with Carnival’s
FunHub portal to provide passengers with immediate digital access to all of
the Breeze’s ship services, facilities, daily activities and social media.
WMS, which is a joint venture of AT&T and MTN,
launched cellular calling, texting and data services for guests and crew
onboard the Carnival Breeze.
“The number of Internet and mobile minutes used on
the inaugural sailing of the Carnival Breeze underscores the importance of
today’s society of staying connected even while on vacation,” said Brent
Horwitz, senior vice president and GM for MTN Cruise and Ferry Services.
The products and services on the ship include remote
access for Internet, fixed and mobile phones, MTN Worldwide Television,
OceanPhone crew calling, a payroll solution for crew and other enterprise
solutions.
MTN Satellite launches new version of Worldwide TV service
In March this year, MTN Satellite
Communications expanded its Worldwide TV service to cruise passengers and
crew with the launch of latest version of the service.
