Cunard Line, one of the world's most recognized brand names with a classic British heritage, has been in the business of providing ocean travel for more than 160 years. The Cunard fleet includes Queen Elizabeth 2 and Caronia . Crew Internet Connections Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has deployed about 500 Internet appliances from IBM Corp. to give ship's crew access to the Internet from their quarters. The NetVista thin client hardware was installed in about 500 crew cabins in Royal Caribbean's new vessel, Radiance Of The Sea . The appliances are designed to help the cruise line recruit and keep top staff by allowing the crew to communicate by e-mail with family and friends, and read online newspapers from home.
Crews are on shipboard often four to eight months at a stretch.
In addition to communication from home, the crew can access internal e-mail and scheduling applications. Internet access is provided through a satellite uplink from the ship. Crew are charged for Internet access at a rate of a penny a minute currently, with pricing to increase to about 15 cents per minute later. The crew is charged partially to recoup costs, and partially to throttle usage and keep from flooding the satellite link with traffic. In addition to the crew Internet access, passengers can access the Internet through several Internet cafes on the ship.