vieux_carre Posted July 1 #1 Share Posted July 1 Can you make audio only calls (e.g. FaceTime audio only, Viber audio only, Zoom with no video, Teams, etc.) with the less expensive “Essential” internet plan? Also, is the Essential plan just slower, or do they block anything besides email, web surfing, & social media? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Pushpit Posted July 1 #2 Share Posted July 1 I am on QA at the moment with the Essentials package, and I have made calls from Skype and the NHS version of Teams, and both worked fine. There was a slight latency on the calls but I can get that on land more often than not. Both pieces of software are a bit sluggish. It's best to call from your stateroom to get a more consistent bandwidth, in public areas it can bounce around a bit depending on what everyone else is doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wordzz Posted July 1 #3 Share Posted July 1 On QV earlier this year I was also able to make WhatsApp calls using the Essentials package. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare tacticalbanjo Posted July 1 #4 Share Posted July 1 I've done FaceTime video calls on the essentials package. My husband and I came to the conclusion that it might be difficult to block FaceTime without blocking other Apple services like iMessage. Some websites are blocked on the Essentials package. I was able to access most of what I wanted although Reddit seems to be on the block list as is TikTok both of which I would consider to be social media although the TikTok block is understandable due to the bandwidth requirements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Pushpit Posted July 1 #5 Share Posted July 1 From what I can make out, the throttling on Essentials (for streaming) is fairly crude and reasonably easy to side-step if you know a bit about internet protocols. You are correct about Reddit, incidentally, it is blocked under conventional Essentials, I tried it just now. But available as a side-step. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harveyb1 Posted July 2 #6 Share Posted July 2 What is a side-step? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Pushpit Posted July 2 #7 Share Posted July 2 50 minutes ago, harveyb1 said: What is a side-step? A workaround would be another word for it. I'm being deliberately opaque since it would be fairly obvious to those who know about these things; and for those who don't would have managed not to use these workarounds in other contexts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted October 2 #8 Share Posted October 2 Thanks... so one question. Is the speed the same on Essential and Premium and only streaming blocked? On Oceania recently and the speeds were the same and I could stream using a "Side Step" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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