My company has booked a corporate yacht charter to the Italian Rivera next month but I’m worried that my phone bill will be extortionate while I try to keep in touch with my family back home. Are there other communication options that will be available that will keep my costs down?

Editorial Team

It all depends how far away you are from the shores.

If there is suitable signal and standard coverage, the cost of your communications will not be higher than when you travel abroad. If however you intend to have long video communications with your family via satelitte connection whilst cruising the Mediterranean, chances are that the bill will indeed be extortionate.

Remember that « wifi » doesn’t mean « free » when the wireless access is done with satellite instead of a terrestrial network connection.

Although the price of satellite communication and subscriptions have reduced dramatically over the years, you’d better double and triple check with your Captain and crew before downloading / streaming huge amounts of data, even if doing so only a couple of nautical miles way from the port.

As a basic rule, remember that satellite connection is mostly meant to stay in touch with the shores should there be any emergency (onboard or ashore), and is by no means a free flow of data. This is also why in many instances superyachts put restrictions in place, with yacht crew too, when it comes to navigation on the Internet once in the middle of the ocean.