Phone signal along East Coast?

[Bellies5]

We are cruising from Sydney to Moreton Island at the end of the month. Will we connect to mobile service along the Coast or not? 

[Aus Traveller]

A fair bit of the time phone service will only be available via the ship's (very expensive) satellite service. Check on your mobile to make sure you are connected to a land-based service before you make a call. 

[Bellies5]

Thank you. It’s my brother-in-laws first cruise and he is anxious about being away from his business. 
 

[SinbadThePorter]

Make sure that roaming is disabled with your mobile service provider so that your phone will only connect with them.

 

Telstra and Telstra resellers have the best coverage along the coast.

 

It's patchy, but you can often get a signal from the top deck if you can see the coastline. Especially going past the big towns like Port Macquarie or Coffs Harbour.

[MicCanberra]

It really depends on your telephone provider /server as well. Telstra is better than some others.

[arxcards]

 

 

As said, hit and miss. The service is unreliable for phone calls, but you will have some OK spots near some of the coastal towns as well as the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast into Moreton Bay. For text messages, they will show up among the short bits of reception, so if he can live with those messages (like many do these days) he should be OK.

 

Critical to not have global roaming unless he can work out a suitable plan with his provider. Cellular at Sea network is only cellular from the phone to the ships communication mast, then satellite from there.

[Sparky74]

One of the things I like about cruising is getting away from my phone and the Internet. 🤷‍♂️

[Chiliburn]

3 hours ago, Bellies5 said:

We are cruising from Sydney to Moreton Island at the end of the month. Will we connect to mobile service along the Coast or not? 

I had service with Telstra up to about Byron Bay a lot of the time and my friend who was with Optus didn’t.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Chiliburn

[OzKiwiJJ]

I suggest your husband gets an internet package and sets up something like WhatsApp to communicate with his business colleagues. 

[SinbadThePorter]

I should add that getting a signal at Tangalooma was no problem last time I was there.

[Jean C]

19 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

One of the things I like about cruising is getting away from my phone and the Internet. 🤷‍♂️

I realise the OP needs phone for work. My SIL is in the same position, so upgraded to Plus for internet and, even from NZ, they found very reasonably cost roaming (I think from my bad memory for numbers that it was about NZ$29 for two weeks). His situation is that if he needs phone connection, he needs it as something will have gone wrong or needs sorting out. Hopefully that doesn't happen, and definitely not on sea days 🥴

 

I can't get over though, the number of passengers that have to find free wifi and stay glued to their devices, even on coaches and buses, missing the scenery 😪

[yarramar]

I have never heard of any roaming plan that includes "cellular at sea". Make sure "data roaming" is off so that if connected to the ships cell the phone's apps won't be updating themselves at your expense.

If he has Telstra, he can use the ships WiFi at reasonable cost to stay in touch with WiFiCalling. This means he can make and receive calls on his regular number  the same  as at home or on the mainland.

[mr walker]

2 hours ago, Jean C said:

I can't get over though, the number of passengers that have to find free wifi and stay glued to their devices, even on coaches and buses, missing the scenery 😪

Yes, it's amazing that people pay thousands to travel to a 'free' wi-fi spot, far more important it seems than seeing or doing anything at the destinations. For some, the main focus is getting online asap to make contact with others, post on social media (food photos) & play games on their phone 😮

 

If I was working in the excursions dept of the cruiseline I would be selling tours that offer free wi-fi at some point of the tour - you would likely sell a lot more 'tours' 🙂 

 

Also, I doubt too many consider the security aspect of free public wi-fi in a foreign country.

Edited November 19, 2023 by mr walker
typo

[MMDown Under]

37 minutes ago, mr walker said:

Yes, it's amazing that people pay thousands to travel to a 'free' wi-fi spot, far more important it seems than seeing or doing anything at the destinations. For some, the main focus is getting online asap to make contact with others, post on social media (food photos) & play games on their phone 😮

 

If I was working in the excursions dept of the cruiseline I would be selling tours that offer free wi-fi at some point of the tour - you would likely sell a lot more 'tours' 🙂 

 

Also, I doubt too many consider the security aspect of free public wi-fi in a foreign country.

Last point is important in Australia also.  When you see people sitting outside the public library out of hours you know they are using free wifi.