Silversea Goes Fleetwide with Bow-to-Stern Wi-Fi

Luxury line Silversea Cruises has expanded its wireless Internet access; Wi-Fi, which was once available only in select "hot spots" onboard such as in suites and public areas, has now gone from bow to stern. This means that Silversea guests can access e-mail and Web sites (via enabled laptops and PDA's) no matter where they are onboard -- fleetwide.

Carnival was the first line to offer bow-to-stern Wi-Fi, test-piloting the program onboard Carnival Valor and then expanding it fleetwide. Though some newer ships, like Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas, are wired for all-over access, Carnival and Silversea are the only lines at this point offering shipwide wireless Internet on each and every ship in their fleets.

This is the latest but not the first technological enhancement Silversea has made for passengers who want to stay connected while cruising. In 2006, the line teamed up with SeaMobile, a global wireless voice and data communications provider, to offer at-sea cell capabilities to cruisers with GSM, CDMA and GPRS devices (GPRS is the platform that handheld PDA devices, such as BlackBerrys, work on).