Verizon Wireless Cell Phone News, Views and Reviews

So I'm on this cruise ship in the middle of nowhere and I find myself yet again without my phone, or at least it's fullest capabilities (data). I bought an internet package at the ships' cyber cafe but I had to sign over my firstborn. The joke is on them, my child bearing years are over. I would have picked the arm and a leg payment plan but if I was suddenly missing an arm and a leg, I'd have bigger problems than needing access to the ship's hotspot.

The other very disconcerting issue is that if you want to use your own device to get on-line you have to take down your firewalls. My dear readers, if I ever impart any wisdom to you, please let it be to never purposely disconnect your only means of security on your device so as to use a public hotspot. That is the time when you are most vulnerable.

I have a lovely 4G hotspot with me but it picks up nothing out here. (Okay, that might be slightly exaggerated for effect-it does work in some ports.) Is that truly the only way to get on-line? The satellite phones of years ago could get you talking out in the big pond, surely there must be technology to develop a satellite hotspot.

Good news; there is something to look forward to in Q4 of this year. The bad news, you'll need about 17 jobs to afford it and the speeds are so slow (around 26kbs), you'll never get to use it in between all those jobs!

Iridium AxcessPoint is a portable and lightweight Wi-Fi hotspot accessory that enables smartphones, tablets and laptops to connect on the Iridium global network for email and web browsing.

Iridium has a "hotspot" coming but it has to connect to a $1000 sat phone. The speeds are comparible to dial up and the cost is roughly $1 a minute. If you are lucky, you can justify or write this off for work but the rest of us who can't stand not to be connected will just have to wait a little longer for something more affordable and less cumbersome...or stay home!

In case you missed the correlation of the title, if I couldn't get on-line, I couldn't do any work. Therefore the only think left to do is have colorful drinks with umbrellas=Chloe the drunken sailor!

Peace out

-CC