Calling over Surf WIFI

[Luvcrusn]

We've always had the Stream WIFI and done voice calls over the WIFI. I was curious whether the Surf WIFI in the AI will allow me to make voice calls onboard or whether I will need to upgrade my WIFI package. I don't care about video calling, voice will suffice. I'll need more streaming time than my captains club free  allotment will allow. TIA for your help.

[Jeremiah1212]

You cannot use WiFi calling with Surf. You will need Stream for that. 

[Luvcrusn]

Thanks. That's what I thought.

[Charles4515]

2 hours ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

You cannot use WiFi calling with Surf. You will need Stream for that. 

 

I have done WiFi calling with Surf a bunch of times.

[Charles4515]

2 hours ago, Luvcrusn said:

We've always had the Stream WIFI and done voice calls over the WIFI. I was curious whether the Surf WIFI in the AI will allow me to make voice calls onboard or whether I will need to upgrade my WIFI package. I don't care about video calling, voice will suffice. I'll need more streaming time than my captains club free  allotment will allow. TIA for your help.

 

I have been able to do WiFi calling with Surf.  It never failed. About 7 cruises. I have never bought the stream option.

[Luvcrusn]

8 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

 

I have been able to do WiFi calling with Surf.  It never failed. About 7 cruises. I have never bought the stream option.

Well I thank you for saving me money!

[paulh84]

Definitely could not use wifi calling with Surf on Edge.

[Luvcrusn]

We'll be travelling on Equinox.

[sbcs5390]

1 hour ago, paulh84 said:

Definitely could not use wifi calling with Surf on Edge.

Was it blocked? Bad quality? What happened? 

[Charles4515]

3 hours ago, Luvcrusn said:

We'll be travelling on Equinox.

 

I used it twice on Silhouette and twice on Refection. Plus three times on Summit. I have cruised  on Equinox but that was before WiFi calling became available. I have also used it on a bunch of Royal Caribbean ships. Only had surf, never had the stream option. It has always been an iPhone. 

Edited February 4, 2022 by Charles4515

[sbcs5390]

12 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

 

I used it on twice Silhouette and twice on Refection. Plus three times on Summit. I have cruised  on Equinox but that was before WiFi calling became available. I have also used it on a bunch of Royal Caribbean ships. Only had surf, never had the stream option. It has always been an iPhone. 

Thank you. Has anyone tried using Microsoft Teams? Not for video, but the audio function alone. Does it work on Surf? 

Edited February 4, 2022 by sbcs5390
surf, not stream

[NutsAboutGolf]

The really good news is on the Edge this past July and the Equinox this past Oct-Nov you utilize the Surf to see what you can and cannot do, then can upgrade in the app to the Steam and while things can change at anytime they included your CC discount.  You could also try and pay for the Stream upgrade for a single day, to do so you had to go to the iLounge to set that up and also had to be return there within 24 hours to downgrade back to Surf.

 

Surf:  I had an iPhone and couldn't send or receive non-iMessage texts.  On the Edge, I could not Wifi call until I upgraded to Stream.  iPhone on Verizon with wifi enabled

[Charles4515]

1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

The really good news is on the Edge this past July and the Equinox this past Oct-Nov you utilize the Surf to see what you can and cannot do, then can upgrade in the app to the Steam and while things can change at anytime they included your CC discount.  You could also try and pay for the Stream upgrade for a single day, to do so you had to go to the iLounge to set that up and also had to be return there within 24 hours to downgrade back to Surf.

 

Surf:  I had an iPhone and couldn't send or receive non-iMessage texts.  On the Edge, I could not Wifi call until I upgraded to Stream.  iPhone on Verizon with wifi enabled

 

On AT&T here.

I wonder if they are degrading the Surf to force upgrades to Surf and Stream. 

[Charles4515]

2 hours ago, sbcs5390 said:

Thank you. Has anyone tried using Microsoft Teams? Not for video, but the audio function alone. Does it work on Surf? 

 

If you need to doTeams or Zoom I would buy the Stream option. Video conferencing uses a lot of bandwidth. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

6 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

 

On AT&T here.

I wonder if they are degrading the Surf to force upgrades to Surf and Stream. 

 

Edge internet speed and reliability was better/faster than the Equinox although its somewhat hard to judge since the itineraries were very different.  Perhaps all the E-Class have been blocking surf packages from day one.  Never tried a wifi call with Surf on the Equinox.

[sbcs5390]

1 hour ago, Charles4515 said:

 

If you need to doTeams or Zoom I would buy the Stream option. Video conferencing uses a lot of bandwidth. 

I just need the audio features of a Teams call, I don't use video. As @NutsAboutGolf wisely suggested, I might be best served by just upgrading on the days I have to work which is probably only three or four days. I won't really make good use of the Stream on the long weekends. I'll be on board for three cruise segments so if I do want to add via the planner (because the on-board cost is higher, although it sounds like that won't be the case) for the future segments entirely rather than doing day-by-day, I can probably still do that if I decide early in the first segment. I think it stays open until 3 days prior. I'm select so get 25%.

Edited February 5, 2022 by sbcs5390

[Arizona Wildcat]

The bandwidth changes depending on the location.  Found calling worked fine most of the time.  Last afternoon or early evening - not good.

[bigbenboys]

17 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

 

On AT&T here.

I wonder if they are degrading the Surf to force upgrades to Surf and Stream. 

Our last cruise in Oct 2021 on Millie in Alaska. We had free Stream minutes with Elite+. I called my parents daily until my minutes were used up. Then I used the Surf package that came with our AquaClass cabin. I was unable to call with Celebrity WiFi using the Surf.

[Luvcrusn]

Now I'm even more confused.  I called Captains Club with my question. After hanging up on hold 3 times and finally being connected to a rep (total of 4 hours to get through to someone), the rep was clueless and only read me what it says on the website. She refused to transfer me to someone with a clue. Honestly I've never had a rude rep but this one was rude on steroids. She told me I couldn't make voice calls unless I had a plan with my wireless provider even on Stream!  I told her I knew I could because I'd done it many times. She told me it must have been another cruise line or a long time ago. I told her I'd done it on Equinox as late as December of last year.  The upshot was, I decided to try it on board using Surf. If it doesn't work I'll use my complementary Captains Club minutes, my DH's CC minutes and if I use those up, I'll upgrade for the remainder of the cruise. 

[Charles4515]

2 hours ago, Luvcrusn said:

Now I'm even more confused.  I called Captains Club with my question. After hanging up on hold 3 times and finally being connected to a rep (total of 4 hours to get through to someone), the rep was clueless and only read me what it says on the website. She refused to transfer me to someone with a clue. Honestly I've never had a rude rep but this one was rude on steroids. She told me I couldn't make voice calls unless I had a plan with my wireless provider even on Stream!  I told her I knew I could because I'd done it many times. She told me it must have been another cruise line or a long time ago. I told her I'd done it on Equinox as late as December of last year.  The upshot was, I decided to try it on board using Surf. If it doesn't work I'll use my complementary Captains Club minutes, my DH's CC minutes and if I use those up, I'll upgrade for the remainder of the cruise. 

 

Do you think the rep has ever been on a cruise? Probably not. They can do some mechanical tasks for us but for deeper questions they have a list of canned answers and not actual knowledge. 

Edited February 5, 2022 by Charles4515

[Straughn]

Read this thread with interest. I am technically challenged, so maybe someone here can tell me what I did wrong.

 

I tried to make a call over WiFi on Edge. I was in a suite, so had Stream. Phone was in airplane mode with WiFi calling enabled. Every time I tried to make a call, I got a notification that  I needed to turn airplane mode off. If I turn airplane mode off, won’t my phone default to my cell phone provider and excess costs?  Verizon is my cell phone provider. What did I do wrong?

[Charles4515]

3 minutes ago, Straughn said:

Read this thread with interest. I am technically challenged, so maybe someone here can tell me what I did wrong.

 

I tried to make a call over WiFi on Edge. I was in a suite, so had Stream. Phone was in airplane mode with WiFi calling enabled. Every time I tried to make a call, I got a notification that  I needed to turn airplane mode off. If I turn airplane mode off, won’t my phone default to my cell phone provider and excess costs?  Verizon is my cell phone provider. What did I do wrong?

 

When you put your phone in Airplane Mode you have to have WiFi on. These days some phones do leave WiFI on by default. The old default was to turn it off and you had to turn it back on. Possibly your WiFi was off. 

[Straughn]

Just now, Charles4515 said:

 

When you put your phone in Airplane Mode you have to have WiFi on. These days some phones do leave WiFI on by default. The old default was to turn it off and you had to turn it back on. Possibly your WiFi was off. 

If I understand this correctly, WiFi calling needs to be turned on before I turn on airplane mode? Frankly, I don’t remember what I did. I have general WiFi turned on as I want to use that at home to save  Verizon data usage. I “think”

WiFi was on, but I turned on WiFi calling after I turned on airplane mode. WiFi and WiFi calling are different settings on my phone.

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 hour ago, Straughn said:

If I understand this correctly, WiFi calling needs to be turned on before I turn on airplane mode? Frankly, I don’t remember what I did. I have general WiFi turned on as I want to use that at home to save  Verizon data usage. I “think”

WiFi was on, but I turned on WiFi calling after I turned on airplane mode. WiFi and WiFi calling are different settings on my phone.

Short version, practice turning on airport mode first than turning on Wi-Fi.  Otherwise it can depend on the phone itself, the current OS and in some cases, the exact settings.  My buddy got a new droid in December and thought he was in airplane mode on a cruise and it turned out he had to turn off some other setting off and was charged $300ish in data.  Here’s another instance but in general iPhones do shutoff the data

[goodoldan]

The term "WiFi calling" takes in a lot of different and dissimilar technologies, and the differences may determine whether calls would be successful on the "Surf" WiFi plan.

 

The "WiFi calling" offered by some cellular providers in the US (that allows you to access your cellular service using WiFi from your mobile phone when cellular signal is not available) utilizes some specific internet ports (as in TCP-IP ports, not places where the ship parks) and I expect is a service that is easily blocked and not available on the "Surf" plans. Actual VoIP (Voice over IP) calling (services like Vonage, VoIPo, CallCentric, Ooma, 8x8 and others) uses a simpler interface protocol and many different TCP-IP ports, and is used much less frequently than the cellular "WiFi calling. I would expect this would be much more likely to work on the "Surf" plan (although I'll find out on my trip on the Edge this November).  Google Voice is another VoIP service with a still different protocol and using different ports... again, this would have to be actively blocked and they may not have bothered doing this. Again, I'll find out on my trip on the Edge this November.

Edited September 10, 2022 by goodoldan