CASE STUDY Island Cruises CHALLENGE The passenger experience is everything in the highly competitive cruise business, and successful cruise ship firms are the first to offer the latest conveniences. Now that most people have cellular phones, making them work at sea has been one of the next steps forward for cruise lines. Thanks to the InterReach Unison ® and Wireless Maritime Services (WMS), cellular service has taken to the sea, and Island Cruises was among the first to offer it. A joint venture of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and First Choice Holidays, Island Cruises offers cruises of the Mediterranean in the summer and transatlantic cruises to Brazil during the northern winter. Its ships, the Island Escape and the Island Star, each carry 1740 passengers and 550 crew members, and feature 770 passenger cabins. Founded in 2003 as a joint venture between Cingular Wireless and Maritime Telecommunications Network (MTN), WMS is a one-stop vendor that deploys shipboard cellular systems, integrates them with MTN’s satellite data network, and then routes calls to the caller’s home network through Cingular’s roaming agreements with more than 250 cellular carriers worldwide. Most of the world’s cruise lines already use MTN’s satellite network for data services (such as onboard Internet access), so it was relatively easy to add cellular traffic to these links. CASE STUDY The challenge was to extend cellular coverage throughout a ship. Ships are problematic for cellular coverage because their steel construction interferes with wireless signals. Delivering on-board coverage requires installation of a distributed antenna system, but installation of these systems can be difficult because of the tight spaces allowed for communications cabling on ships. But with the Unison system, Wireless Maritime Services (WMS) overcame these problems. The system’s active electronic architecture ensures that each of its remote antennas delivers maximum signal strength to a specific area. And the system uses standard multi-mode fiber and Cat-5 cables that are small, flexible, and relatively easy to install, especially when compared with the rigid coaxial cabling used in other cellular extension systems. For Island Cruises, the system had to deliver strong, reliable coverage for passengers and crew. In addition, the installation could not disrupt passenger activities, and the equipment could not clash with the ship’s aesthetics. “We wanted most of the passenger areas covered, including the pools, bars, and passenger cabins,” says Manuel. “People carry their cell phones around and they get text messages, calls from relatives or business contacts, and even calls from other passengers.” In addition, the system covered common areas in the crew’s quarters. NON-DISRUPTIVE DEPLOYMENT In the Unison system, the cellular signal is distributed from a central Main Hub through active Expansion Hubs and out to remote antennas. Deployment and testing of the Island Escape’s system took six weeks in 2004, but this initial experience allowed WMS to reduce installation time to 3-4 weeks on the Island Star six months later. The installation crews worked during overnight hours and while passengers were on shore excursions to minimize disruption. “Everything we do is guided by the need to make sure the passenger has a good experience,” says Manuel, “so any maintenance or operational activities have to be as invisible as possible.” The MTN satellite network antenna on the ship’s superstructure captures the signal and then it moves over fiber optic cabling to the ship’s communications room. From the base station the Unison system distributes the 900 and 1900 MHz GSM cellular signals through expansion hubs, remote access units (RAUs) and remote antennas to drive strong, clear signals throughout the ship. On the Island Escape, the system consists of two Main Hubs, 8 Expansion Hubs, and 50 antennas. “We placed one Expansion Hub in each of the ship’s fire zones (individual watertight sections) using an existing fiber backbone, so we were able to minimize the number of times we had to drill through steel bulkheads,” says Marjerison. As for aesthetics, the system is virtually invisible to passengers. “As soon as you hang something from the ceiling or wall in a public area, you want to be sure it’s aesthetically pleasing,” says Manuel. “The nice thing about this aspect of the system is that the antennas look like a small fire alarm sensor. I don’t think passengers have ever noticed them.” To ensure that the system was working properly, Island Cruises conducted weeks of testing which proved it to be bulletproof. “We’re in the customer satisfaction business, and we weren’t really sure what the level of quality would be, so we didn’t announce to passengers that the service was available until we knew it was performing to our expectations.” HAPPY PASSENGERS, HIGHER REVENUES During the initial planning for the system, some people at Island Cruises worried that passengers might complain about noisy cell phone users, but the fear proved groundless. “We’ve never had a passenger complain about that,” says Manuel. “In fact, we get calls from meeting planners and individuals who want to make sure that we do offer coverage.” Manuel believes that increasing use of data services via smart phones and BlackBerry devices has driven some of this demand, but voice is still the primary application. “When you have business people or two-career families or even retired CASE STUDY Website: www.adc.com From North America, Call Toll Free: 1-800-366-3891 • Outside of North America: +1-952-938-8080 Fax: +1-952-917-3237 • For a listing of ADC’s global sales office locations, please refer to our website. 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All Rights Reserved people on the ship,” he says, “they want to be able to talk to their business contacts or relatives back on land, and a growing number of them won’t take a cruise if they won’t have coverage.” As for the system’s performance, it has worked flawlessly. “No news is good news for us,” says Manuel. “If passengers can use their phone the same way they would use it shore-side in a hotel, that’s the perfect experience for us, and that’s what we’ve gotten.” In addition to happier customers, Island Cruises also boosts revenues because it shares per-minute roaming charges that passengers incur. WMS keeps track of passenger call minutes and facilitates revenue payments of partial roaming charges from passengers’ home-network carriers back to Island Cruises. THE WIRELESS OCEAN With the success of Island Cruises’ cellular deployments, other cruise lines have followed suit. WMS has now deployed systems offering both GSM and CDMA coverage on over 30 ships operated by Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Orient Lines, and Regent Seven Seas Cruises. WMS expects to bring this total to over 50 ships by the end of 2006. Throughout this rapid expansion since the initial deployment in 2004, WMS has been able to rely on rock-solid performance from the Unison systems. “We now have 30 ships sailing every week, so that’s about 60,000 passengers a week, and there are absolutely no complaints,” says Marjerison. “That’s pretty remarkable.” . and Island Cruises was among the first to offer it. A joint venture of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and First Choice Holidays, Island Cruises offers cruises. from passengers’ home-network carriers back to Island Cruises. THE WIRELESS OCEAN With the success of Island Cruises cellular deployments, other cruise lines