Ordinary travel eSIMs go dark the moment land drops below the horizon. This one runs on the ship's own onboard mobile network — the same network your phone sees as “Telenor Maritime” — so you can message home from the middle of the ocean without a daily WiFi pass and without a maritime roaming bill.
162 ships & ferries
Vessels on the covered list
30 operators
Cruise lines & ferry operators
No expiry date
Unused data rolls over
250 MB from $11.56
Smallest pack
Buy the data you expect to use at sea. Nothing expires, so whatever is left stays on the eSIM for the next sailing — including a different ship or ferry on the covered list.
250 MB
No expiry
Messaging and a handful of photos on one crossing
$11.56
about $46.24 per GB
500 MB
No expiry
Messages, email and light browsing for a short sailing
$21.67
about $43.34 per GB
1 GB
No expiry
Daily check-ins, maps and social feeds on a week-long cruise
$40.16
about $40.16 per GB
2 GB
No expiry
Regular social media and photo uploads for a week at sea
$72.87
about $36.44 per GB
3 GB
No expiry
Two people staying in touch, or one heavy social user
$105.87
about $35.29 per GB
4 GB
No expiry
A family messaging group plus daily photo uploads
$138.89
about $34.72 per GB
5 GB
No expiry
Longer sailings, or a couple sharing one connection
$172.17
about $34.43 per GB
Prices include applicable VAT. These packages carry data only — no calls or SMS — and work on the ship's onboard network, not on land.
Once you are offshore there is no tower to reach. So the ship carries small cells of its own and hauls the traffic back to land over satellite.
The ship runs its own 3G/4G cells — 5G on some newer vessels — covering cabins and decks. Your phone treats them exactly like any other mobile network.
Everything the ship sends and receives crosses one satellite link shared by everyone on board. That link is what makes maritime data expensive — and why allowances are measured in megabytes, not tens of gigabytes.
Outside territorial waters the onboard network switches on. Near the coast and in port it stays off so it does not clash with national networks, and your phone falls back to shore towers.
What your phone shows. At sea the network name appears as Telenor Maritime, or as the numeric code 901 12 on some handsets. Seeing that name is the signal that you are on the ship's network rather than a shore network — which matters, because that is also the moment a home SIM with roaming left on starts billing maritime rates.
This plan only works where the Telenor Maritime network is installed. Below is the operator's own published list — 68 cruise ships and 94 ferries across 30 companies. Please check your exact ship: having one covered ship does not mean a whole fleet is covered.
List published by Telenor Maritime and checked by us on 13 October 2026. Fleets change, so confirm against the operator's own ship checker if your sailing is far off. If your ship is not listed, this eSIM will not connect on board — a regional eSIM for your ports is the better buy.
We sell one of these three. We will still tell you when one of the others is the better deal for your trip.
The one to avoid
Maritime networks sit outside normal roaming deals. Three states it flatly: “maritime and airline networks aren't included in Go Roam and you'll be charged standard roaming rates to connect to them.”
On a MoneySavingExpert thread about the maritime network on P&O cruises, one passenger found texts that used to come out of their allowance were suddenly “charging at 35p per text”; another's advice was blunt — “personally I'd use it only in a dire emergency”.
Good for heavy, daily use
Sold by the day. P&O Cruises, for example, lists Essential WiFi at £20 for 24 hours or £14 a day bought for the whole cruise, and Ultimate at £30 and £20 respectively.
If you will be online every day for a week or more, an all-cruise package is usually cheaper per gigabyte than maritime data. The trade-offs are the daily commitment, the login portal, and a link shared with everyone else on board.
Good for light use and short hops
Pay for an allowance instead of a day. Packs start at $11.56 for 250 MB, nothing expires, and it works straight from your phone's mobile data with no portal to log into.
Best when you want to stay reachable rather than live online: a ferry crossing, a few check-ins a day at sea, or keeping a second device connected without buying it its own WiFi pass.
The onboard network is switched off near the coast. Alongside the quay your phone is meant to see shore networks, not the ship — so the cruise eSIM showing no service there is expected behaviour, not a fault.
Before you sail, turn off automatic app updates, cloud photo backup and background refresh, and set messaging apps not to auto-download media. Those three habits are what quietly drain a maritime allowance overnight.
Maritime data is for sea days. Ashore, a regional eSIM gives you full-speed local 4G and 5G for a fraction of the price per gigabyte — one plan usually covers every stop on a Mediterranean, Caribbean or Baltic itinerary. Our cruise connectivity guide walks through the whole sea-and-shore setup.
An ordinary travel eSIM does not — it uses land towers, which fade out a few miles offshore. This one is different: it is a maritime plan that runs on the ship's own onboard mobile network, operated by Telenor Maritime, so it keeps working once you are out at sea and far from any coast. It only works on vessels where that network is installed, which is why the ship list on this page matters before you buy.
Telenor Maritime publishes the vessels its network is installed on. At our last check there were 162 of them — 68 cruise ships and 94 ferries — across 30 operators, including AIDA Cruises, Costa Crociere, Cunard, P&O Cruises, Marella Cruises, TUI Cruises, Viking Ocean Cruises, Swan Hellenic, DFDS Seaways, Stena Line, Brittany Ferries and Irish Ferries. Search the list on this page for your exact ship before you buy — a line having some covered ships does not mean every ship in its fleet is covered.
Roughly 12 nautical miles out, which is the edge of territorial waters. Closer in — and in port — the onboard network is switched off so it does not interfere with national networks, and phones attach to shore towers instead. That is why "no service" alongside the quay is normal and not a fault with your eSIM.
It depends on how much you use. For light use, a short crossing, or a few days of messaging, buying a small data pack is far cheaper than committing to a daily WiFi package — P&O Cruises, for example, lists Essential WiFi at £20 for 24 hours, or £14 a day when bought for the whole cruise. For a full week of heavy use, an all-week ship WiFi package usually works out cheaper per gigabyte than maritime data. We would rather tell you that than pretend otherwise.
No. These packages carry no expiry date, so unused data stays on the eSIM for your next sailing. Data is only consumed when your phone is actually connected to the onboard network at sea.
No. It only works on the onboard maritime network, so it gives you nothing ashore. For port days you want a normal country or regional eSIM, which is both much faster and far cheaper per gigabyte. Many cruise passengers carry both: a maritime pack for sea days and a regional eSIM for every port.
Only if you let your own line connect. Maritime networks sit outside normal roaming deals — Three, for example, states plainly that "maritime and airline networks aren't included in Go Roam and you'll be charged standard roaming rates to connect to them". Switch data roaming off for your home line and leave it on for the eSIM, and only the eSIM allowance is used.
No, these are data-only packages. Calls and texts over the onboard network would still be billed by your home operator at maritime rates, so use data apps like WhatsApp, FaceTime or Signal for voice and messaging instead.
The onboard network is 3G and 4G, with 5G on a handful of newer ships, and the whole ship shares one satellite link back to shore. Expect it to be comfortable for messaging, email, maps and social media, and not a substitute for home broadband. Video streaming at sea is slow and expensive whichever option you choose.
