HOTDESTINATIONS - VENEZUELA

But chatterboxes who want to save money on calls to the UK may be better off sticking to the 'premium rate satellite phones' in their cabin

P&O claims that cruise passengers who once had to rely on satellite phones to call the UK can now save money by using their mobile phones, but it depends on the length of the call.

The development follows investment by P&O Cruises in new technology, which allows its passengers to connect to a global mobile phone network called GSM. The GSM network is available on Oceana, Arcadia, Aurora and Oriana (but not Artemis) and is activated once the cruise ship is 12 nautical miles from the shore. At this point mobile phones fail to connect to a land-based network and switch to the GSM one, although charges for the calls will still appear on the passenger's regular mobile phone bill.

Rates for receiving calls, making calls and sending text messages vary across the networks from around £1.29 per minute to £1.68, with the average at about £1.40 to make and receive calls, and an average 50 pence to send a text.

Previously the only way to phone home from the middle of the Atlantic was to use the satellite phones provided in each cabin, which cost £5 for up to five minutes, £8 for up to 10 minutes and £12 for up to 15 minutes.

Based on a mobile phone charge of £1.40 per minute to make or receive mobile phone calls, passengers making an international call for less than three and a half minutes will save money by using a mobile phone, but for calls of up to five minutes, the fixed satellite phone charge of £5 makes it more affordable.

P&O claims that we're witnessing "the end of premium satellite call charge at sea", but passengers who chat at length on their mobile phones may well be in for a shock when they get home and receive their bill.