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Cell phone understandings


onewomanarmy
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First time cruiser in a couple of weeks, trying to wrap my head around cell phone use (or lack thereof!).

These are my understandings, please correct me where I'm wrong:

1, Once we are away from shore, we'll be out of reach of cell towers and any further use of phone functions (making/receiving calls, voicemails, texts) will be on a much higher rate. According to Verizon, $2.99/min for calls.

2, Best option at this point is to turn phone to airplane mode if we have no intentions of using phone or data functions under the higher rates. Manually turn on WiFi after going to airplane mode to be able to use any onboard internet plans.

3. Can use onboard wi-fi to make/receive calls via Skype if we sign up for the highest internet plan.

4. Even lowest internet plan will allow us to send/receive texts via Whatsapp or Facebook messenger while on board without accruing additional fees.

 

5. While in port, since we both have Travel Pass on our phones, we'd have full usability (data and voice) for the Travel Pass daily rate for the country we are currently in. I believe this is $5 for Verizon for our ports.

Am I missing anything? I just don't want any surprises when we get back. :o

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1 and 2 are correct.

 

3 will vary a little by cruise line and ship, which you don't specify. It is possible the signal strength for the satellite may not be continuous enough for Skype, which may make for some frustrating time trying to Skype.

 

4. Is most likely true.

 

5. I am not familiar with Verizon's plans, but thought their international plans were $10/day, per phone.

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Thanks, CruiserBruce!

 

At least I seem to be thinking generally correct regarding phone use. We're going to be on Carnival Valor - it's a test cruise to see how we like the general idea. We didn't want to spend a ton of money on something just to find out we're not cruisers! :o

 

Also, my memory thought $10/phone internationally as well - seems like when we were in St Lucia that was the case. But when I went to Verizon's page and investigated more, it appears that we'd only be charged $5/phone in Mexico.

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U are correct. It’s really the roaming data to be wary of more than the calling. You can control whether you make calls or pick up an incoming call. But many things on your phone run data in the background without you realizing. Make sure roaming data is off. Believe they charge around $2 a mb (ie, $2,000 for a gig that would cost u $20 at home)

 

 

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HI all,

 

I have Verizon as a carrier and I have the travel pass program. I last used it in October and November while cruising. I used it on several different islands. It is $10.00 a day per device.

 

There are lots of places that do have free wi-fi on the islands.

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If your phone supports it, you can turn on Wifi calling (must be done before you are out of cell service range) and then make calls and send texts via wifi at sea.

 

In port, you can also find wifi hotspots and make calls/send/receive texts.

 

If you turn on wifi calling, put the phone in airplane mode, but turn wifi back on.

 

One thing to watch, the $10 per day is midnight to midnight, not 24 hour period. So if you are in port from 2PM one day until noon the next day, you will get charged two days.

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We each bring international cells through mobal.com. It charges only when we use it. We bring it ashore with us along with a charger. So far we’ve used it in Holland, Canada and New Zealand. The domestic goes us too,and both stay powered off in our safe while we’re at sea.

 

 

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First time cruiser in a couple of weeks, trying to wrap my head around cell phone use (or lack thereof!).

 

 

 

These are my understandings, please correct me where I'm wrong:

 

1, Once we are away from shore, we'll be out of reach of cell towers and any further use of phone functions (making/receiving calls, voicemails, texts) will be on a much higher rate. According to Verizon, $2.99/min for calls.

 

 

 

2, Best option at this point is to turn phone to airplane mode if we have no intentions of using phone or data functions under the higher rates. Manually turn on WiFi after going to airplane mode to be able to use any onboard internet plans.

 

 

 

3. Can use onboard wi-fi to make/receive calls via Skype if we sign up for the highest internet plan.

 

 

 

4. Even lowest internet plan will allow us to send/receive texts via Whatsapp or Facebook messenger while on board without accruing additional fees.

 

 

 

 

5. While in port, since we both have Travel Pass on our phones, we'd have full usability (data and voice) for the Travel Pass daily rate for the country we are currently in. I believe this is $5 for Verizon for our ports.

 

 

 

 

Am I missing anything? I just don't want any surprises when we get back. :o

 

 

 

 

 

The one caveat is that any "plan" savings provided by your regular cell company is based on connecting with that provider's network or with one of its international partners (e.g., AT&T with Claro or Vodaphone is certain countries). Listed on their website. Thus, you should adjust your phone's network settings to "manual," so that, once you are in range of cell towers, all available networks will be displayed at the top of your home screen and you can then select the appropriate one.

Leaving "network" set on "auto" could cost big bucks.

 

 

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I never had an issue with ATT in the past or T-mobile now in connecting to the "wrong" network.

 

 

Really depends on where you are. A quick look at the AT&T "international" web pages will show a searchable country list that names their partners. Takes all of 5 minutes to write them down for your trip's stops.

 

 

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Your #1 and #2 are accurate although we are not positive that the rate quoted to you by Verizon is the entire rate. But when it comes to WiFi its really a mixed bag depending on the cruise line and even on the specific ship. What you pay for WiFi really varies as there are per minute plans, unlimited, etc. On most ships, WiiFi is very slow compared to land-based....and sometimes is painfully slow. Using a voice or video app such as parts of Whatsif may or may not work depending on your wifi speed. Text apps do tend to work much better, even in a very slow internet environment. The reality is that you will learn by trial and error.....but it is always wise to keep the phone in airplane mode once the ship is a few miles from land (out of range of land based cell towers).

 

As to what happens with land-based it is another mixed bag. For example, we have T-Mobile which pretty much works everywhere (about 140 countries) with no additional fees for text or data...but a 20 cent per minute cell phone price in many countries. Other plans such as ATT and Verizon each have their own charges (almost always a lot more then T-Mobile)....but even when you pay for that plan it is not a guarantee that your phone will even work...or work with all functions. For example, last month we were in St Thomas...and island that suffered a huge amount of damage to its infrastructure during the fall hurricanes. We could get 5 bars on our phone and were able to make telephone calls and usually use text (we have iPhones). But data did not work. This was likely an issue with the hurricane damage to their island systems...but we are not sure. On other islands sometimes data works and sometimes it does not. According to T-Mobile this is an issue with some local providers.

 

As to why T-Mobile works all over the world (with no additional fees) it seems to be related to the fact they they are owned by a major European provider.

 

Hank

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Thanks for all the great information - the mud is much clearer now! :D

 

We're shooting for going fairly unconnected while on our cruise - and as a firm hater of talking on the phone, I'm not too concerned with being able to use the phone in general. Data is harder to give up, but I'd rather have a few extra adult beverages than pay an arm and a leg for data access. I did want to make sure we were reachable though in case of an emergency. My partner's mother has been having some health issues and it would be nice to know that we could at least be contacted. We'll probably just spread the word to email or text and we'll contact/call back asap.

 

Thanks again for all the helpful replies and anecdotes!

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The cruise lines also have a number you can have shore people call and be connected to you on the ship.

 

It is not cheap, but for an emergency, it works.

 

Last cruise I got a combined beverage package with wifi. And have wifi calling enabled on my phone, so could have made or received calls. But mainly did some emails.

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As to why T-Mobile works all over the world (with no additional fees) it seems to be related to the fact they they are owned by a major European provider.

 

 

That's not true. Each carrier has to have their own agreements with the international partners including foreign subsidiaries. T-Mobile decided to offer international roaming to consumer plans while AT&T and Verizon decided not to offer the consumers international roaming. When I traveled internationally for work, the corporate AT&T plan operated similar to T-Mobile's consumer international roaming except with lower airtime rates and faster data speeds. T-Mobile throttles international data speeds for consumers.

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That's not true. Each carrier has to have their own agreements with the international partners including foreign subsidiaries. T-Mobile decided to offer international roaming to consumer plans while AT&T and Verizon decided not to offer the consumers international roaming. When I traveled internationally for work, the corporate AT&T plan operated similar to T-Mobile's consumer international roaming except with lower airtime rates and faster data speeds. T-Mobile throttles international data speeds for consumers.

 

Sometimes T-Mobile throttles data (to about 3G) and other times they do not. They also now offer, for $10 a month, a high speed data option (we have never found the need to use this) which one can enable on a month to month basis (easy to do from your phone of a PC). Keep in mind that is $10 for an entire month....and will generally get you LTE just about everywhere it exists.

 

But we have yet to find the need to use that extra speed option. For example, we are now living in Puerto Valllarta and get unlimited LTE speed by using Telcel (this is included in our T-Mobile plan). When we have traveled thorughout Europe we sometimes would get throttled 3G (which is fast enough) and other times (such as when we were in Russia) we got LTE. As to their European ownership, T-Mobile is an arm of Deutsche Telecom who has an extensive European network. This makes it easy (and less costly) for them to simply use their existing network for their T-Mobile customers. Other companies who do not own their own network in various countries have to negotiate sharing agreements which can cost them money....that is often passed on to their customers through higher fees.

 

My personal belief is that within the next few years all providers will offer extensive worldwide coverage...without the ridiculous fees we see charged by some US companies ($10 a day is outrageous). Competition has really been leading to improvements in Cell coverage at lower prices. DW and I have no loyalty to any carrier and we simply change to whoever has the best deals (which is now T-Mobile). If ATT or Verizon had a better deal it would only take us a few hours to switch providers. This is one huge advantage to having unlocked phones :).

 

Hank

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That's not true. Each carrier has to have their own agreements with the international partners including foreign subsidiaries. T-Mobile decided to offer international roaming to consumer plans while AT&T and Verizon decided not to offer the consumers international roaming. When I traveled internationally for work, the corporate AT&T plan operated similar to T-Mobile's consumer international roaming except with lower airtime rates and faster data speeds. T-Mobile throttles international data speeds for consumers.

 

ATT and Verizon offer international roaming plans, at an additional cost.

 

T-mobile guarantees on 2G data speeds, but in many countries I get 4G or LTE speeds. When you phone first accesses the local system, you get a text message that tells you the data speed in that country.

 

Are your corporate airtime rates lower than 20 cents per minute?

 

And anyway, your corporate plan is not available to most people. :)

 

But T-mobile is.

 

And NO ONE offers low cost access in ALL countries. Both T-mobile and ATT are in over 140 countries each, but the lists of countries are different.

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