Medallion Net usage calculation

[Debbdo]

Yes, yet ANOTHER Medallion Net question. This is our first cruise where we get 150 minutes complimentary internet.

 

I researched here and cannot find an answer to my husband's question. Any assistance is appreciated. 

 

From my husband (my geek): How do they calculate "usage time" (for our 150 "complimentary" minutes). If we have our phones on to use the Medallion app, and it's on WiFi as I said, it WILL be attempting to connect to the internet quite often. Is the only way to stop that is to not connect the phone?

 

[vampiress]

correct.  you have to actively log in or out.  and you will want tot urn off push notifications and background sync for apps as your phone likely does a lot of syncing in the background that will use your minutes, like the weather app, email, social media app of choice.

[skynight]

9 minutes ago, Debbdo said:

Yes, yet ANOTHER Medallion Net question. This is our first cruise where we get 150 minutes complimentary internet.

 

I researched here and cannot find an answer to my husband's question. Any assistance is appreciated. 

 

From my husband (my geek): How do they calculate "usage time" (for our 150 "complimentary" minutes). If we have our phones on to use the Medallion app, and it's on WiFi as I said, it WILL be attempting to connect to the internet quite often. Is the only way to stop that is to not connect the phone?

 

Place phone in airplane mode

Minutes are counted by the time you are connected to the internet. When you are finished with the internet you must disconnect from the internet so the minutes don't keep running. I connect, download my e-mails then disconnect. There will be assistance on the ship to help you understand.

You can connect to the ship's inTRAnet at no charge and stay connected all the time.

Edited September 5, 2019 by skynight

[Haboob]

1 hour ago, skynight said:

Place phone in airplane mode

Minutes are counted by the time you are connected to the internet. When you are finished with the internet you must disconnect from the internet so the minutes don't keep running. I connect, download my e-mails then disconnect. There will be assistance on the ship to help you understand.

You can connect to the ship's inTRAnet at no charge and stay connected all the time.

 

Yup.  Step #1, priority #1 is "place phone in Airplane Mode".  Then turn WiFi back on (turning on Airplane Mode turns off WiFi, but turning WiFi back on does not turn Airplane Mode back off).

 

Once on board, connect to the ship's intranet and choose between your Elites' unlimited-minute discount or your freebie Elites' minutes.

 

If unlimited minutes, then select the intranet's "connect to the internet" option and away you go.  If you're using multiple devices round-robin, logging on another device will bump a current device off the internet after asking "are you sure?".

 

If freebie minutes, select the "connect to the internet" option, and when you're done don't forget to "logoff from the internet" so your minutes don't keep ticking down.  When logged off from the internet you can't make or receive WiFi-calling-based calls or text, and background downloads and updates won't run.

[Colo Cruiser]

3 hours ago, Debbdo said:

Yes, yet ANOTHER Medallion Net question. This is our first cruise where we get 150 minutes complimentary internet.

 

I researched here and cannot find an answer to my husband's question. Any assistance is appreciated. 

 

From my husband (my geek): How do they calculate "usage time" (for our 150 "complimentary" minutes). If we have our phones on to use the Medallion app, and it's on WiFi as I said, it WILL be attempting to connect to the internet quite often. Is the only way to stop that is to not connect the phone?

 

Ship?

[Debbdo]

Just now, Colo Cruiser said:

Ship?

Regal Princess, but not sure that's relevant. Is it done differently on different ships?

[Colo Cruiser]

57 minutes ago, Debbdo said:

Regal Princess, but not sure that's relevant. Is it done differently on different ships?

For those posters that are unaware of the possible issues involved.

It is very relevant because of roll out of Medallion Net which is only on certain ships at this point.

Yes the Regal does have Medallion Net.

On a non Medallion Net ship you would most likely burn through those free minutes very quickly not to mention the level of frustration with an extremely slow system.

Wanted to make sure you were not on a non Medallion Net ship.  😉

The Regal Medallion Net is lightning fast and so awesome.

If you use up your minutes you might consider getting the unlimited package.

Usually very reasonably priced.

You can stay logged in 24/7!

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, Colo Cruiser said:

Ship?

Ah.. correcting my initial wording. 

 

You wanted to make the point that minutes last longer, go further, on a Medallion Net ship because the internet speed is so much faster.  True enough as long as the ship is not in extreme latitudes and then things slow down some - or become intermittent in connection latency.

 

Edited September 5, 2019 by steelers36

[Haboob]

3 hours ago, Colo Cruiser said:

Ship?

 

Actually, "where" is more important than just "ship".   The ship may have all the MedallionNet bells and whistles, but if it's going out of range of the O3b satellites (i.e., north of Seattle or Southampton), you're back to using lower-bandwidth GEO satellites.

 

When I took Regal trans-Atlantic last spring, they switched over to GEO satellites as we left Ponta Delgata, and the difference was ...noticeable.

[Times Prince]

5 hours ago, Haboob said:

 

Yup.  Step #1, priority #1 is "place phone in Airplane Mode".  Then turn WiFi back on (turning on Airplane Mode turns off WiFi, but turning WiFi back on does not turn Airplane Mode back off).

 

Once on board, connect to the ship's intranet and choose between your Elites' unlimited-minute discount or your freebie Elites' minutes.

 

If unlimited minutes, then select the intranet's "connect to the internet" option and away you go.  If you're using multiple devices round-robin, logging on another device will bump a current device off the internet after asking "are you sure?".

 

If freebie minutes, select the "connect to the internet" option, and when you're done don't forget to "logoff from the internet" so your minutes don't keep ticking down.  When logged off from the internet you can't make or receive WiFi-calling-based calls or text, and background downloads and updates won't run.

This process works for the non-Medallion ships as well.   Last two cruises on Royal Princess this is exactly what we did, except for the "unlimited minutes" which was not an option at the time.