While there are many downsides to people being in perpetual contact, it does allow for nearly instant collaboration between people all over the world.
It’s amazing that something as small as the lack of access to a phone is what kept Steven Spielberg and Stephen King from working together.
Even if King had been free to work in London at the time, it would have been difficult for the pair to really collaborate across the world like that in 1982.
If this were happening today there would be a half dozen different ways to get a hold of somebody, and while internet access in the middle of the ocean is usually not cheap, it’s certainly an option.