I know many TV stations are now using 3G wireless cards to transfer video files to the studio. If these cards are used on cruise ships or in areas near cruise ships, watch out for big bills. Verizon allows up to 5 GB of data per month on its EvDO data network before per megabyte charges are assessed, but in some locations the rate could be much higher.
Eric Zeman, writing on Informationweek.com, reports in "AT&T Wireless Customer Charted $28,000 to Watch Football Game," an unidentified man was using his AT&T wireless modem to watch a football game via his Slingbox while on a cruise ship in the Port of Miami. However, instead of connecting to AT&T through the ground based AT&T sites in Miami, his call was picked up by the ship's internal cell phone system and relayed via satellite as an international call, which carried a charge of two cents per kilobyte of data.
3G wireless cards aren't the only devices susceptible to high data fees. The iPhone uses AT&T's data network. Zeman notes he made sure he turned off data roaming on his iPhone completely, along with its e-mail retrieval system, on a recent trip to Spain. Read his article to find out what happened to the unfortunate Chicago Bears fan.
