connect at sea packages?

Can anyone explain the connect at sea package I am reading about in my documents. 0.99 cents per minute. Do you buy on board? Through your provider? Do you use your cell or the room phone. Not explained in documents.

Is it is the ships internet providers (MTN) version of Skype or Facetime. It is a Voice over IP (VoIP) system that allows you to make phones calls using the ships internet services for $0.99 per minute.

It requires that you have a smartphone (Apple or Android). It requires you to download the APP before boarding. After boarding the MTN Internet Manager can set it up for you as it requires opening an account and registering the phone in system. I think they also give you a phone number for incoming calls (a Florida number)

It also allows texting between other persons on board that have the APP. The texting is free.

Considering the cost -- it would be cheaper to buy internet time and using a VoIP APP like Facetime. Other cruisers say that this will work on "O".

Just buy the internet package. You can use skype/facetime/vibr/vonage/etc.... just fine in my experience. I usually disable the video as that DOES get pretty "laggy" with the limited bandwidth but VoIP voice calls work well in almost every area (except the Baltic sea for some reason (twice now I had terrible bandwidth there and dropped calls constantly)). YMMV

It would appear it would be considerably less expensive to put a voip phone app on your smartphone and do your calling via onboard wifi at a charge of $0.00 per minute. (You either have a free wifi/internet pkg onboard or buy one.) We use Comcast's Connect "Voice2go" (for Comcast home telephone subscribers). No charge for incoming or outgoing phone calls. People call your home phone number (not your cell number) and your smartphone rings, even onboard. Again, either a free or paid onboard data package from Oceania is necessary. I have been unsuccessful at obtaining info either from Oceania or here as to whether there is any advantage whatsoever in using the paid connect@sea service. People guess but, apparently, nobody knows.