Billing the world’s first “floating GSM cell”!

BT Aeronautical had an idea to offer passengers the opportunity to use their existing GSM mobile phone and number whilst on board cruise ships. This idea involved placing a base station on board a ship and linking it via satellite to the BT Manx network. This was done on the P&O ship “Oriana” during her refit schedule.

Technically each user would be registered as a visiting subscriber on the BT Manx network. However the idea was to use the Cerillion system to recognise the cell site ID and bill users for the service at a special rate.

The system had to be implemented in a very tight time schedule. The complete project was completed in less than three months from concept to implementation.

The Result
The trial has been highly successful. The “floating cell” allowed all passengers to use their own phones and to receive and make calls just as they would be able to on a land-based holiday. Service was available at all times during a cruise except when the ship was within a certain distance of land. At these times the cell site was switched off to avoid interference with land based systems.

P&O were pleased that the service could potentially encourage more businessmen to consider a cruise as a holiday in the future. The trial was considered to be highly successful and BT Aeronautical are considering a larger scale roll out.