No land in sight, but GSM coverage everywhere

A company called Altobridge has a solution that will allow you to make a call, or send an SMS, with your regular cellphone (GSM or CDMA) anywhere at sea, all over the world. It requires you to have an always on internet connection, but that should be no problem if you’re willing to spend $25K for using your favorite Nokia in the middle of the Pacific in the first place. Calls to and from your cellphone are charged to the to your normal ‘home’ account and appear on your bill like any other roaming call.
Oh, and if you’re coming in range of land, remember to switch the GSM off. It might cause interference or adds to the terrestrial GSM signals, which the local operator will have probably paid large licensing fees for…
“Altobridge’s basic shipboard GSM system will cost Eur 25,000; for a little bit more it can be expanded to also pick up 802.11 and Bluetooth, standard short range wireless networking protocols, and CDMA, another mobile phone system.”
By the way, if you have an always on internet connection and you’re not willing to spend this extra money to use your Nokia GSM, consider a Wi-Fi SIP phone.