Cruise lines that already offer these amenities or will soon have them in place in the near future include Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line, Disney Cruise Lines, Renaissance, Princess, Holland America, Sun Cruises, and Premier. A laptop or desktop computer aboard the ship is connected to a local network that connects to a satellite transceiver dish. The dish is pointed precisely at a communications satellite, which is no trivial feat given the constant movement of the ship. The satellite relays the digital information to ground stations called teleports, which in turn are connected to the backbone of the Internet. In the digital world, there is no practical difference between sending a block of text, a picture, a fax document or a voice file.
Bits are bits.
But to maximize their profits, the cruise ships typically impose a surcharge depending on the type of message being sent. If passengers do not already have an Internet E-mail account, they will be assigned one when they buy their cruise passage, so that they can give it to friends, family and colleagues. Telemedicine Link Princess Cruises have put in place a telemedicine program that links their ship to a Fort Lauderdale, Florida clinic via a 64kbps satellite connection aboard their Ocean Princess. Passengers and crew can call on the services of 110 medical specialists at the Cleveland Clinic, should they develop a medical condition that the onboard medical director and staff can't handle. The telemedicine suite also includes vital signs monitors, such as electrocardiogram machines that can be read remotely in real time at a PC installed in the Clinic's emergency room.