Using Your Cell On Board

[SusieQusie]

what about text messages??:p

 

My question exactly!!!! Anyone with teens can totally understand the concern here. I know it varies from provider to provider, but I'm thinking my kids should just leave their cells phones AT HOME during our cruise to avoid any expensive issues!

[schoolmarm]

40yearcruiser,

We used Verizon on our Alaska cruise 3 years ago. Even though we very carefully checked our phones to see if we were roaming (according to our phones we weren't!) we were charged roaming for every call we made. I disputed this with Verizon but got nowhere. We also had the plan with no roaming fees. Seems it doesn't apply in Alaska. Go figure! We made calls in every port so we had alot of fees.

[Princess Chatterer]

Cellular At Sea is provided by WMS, a joint venture of Cingular Wireless and MTN.

 

Major Wireless Carriers In Service

Partial List – There are nearly 300 carriers in service with WMS worldwide

Here's the list.

http://www.cellularatsea.com/cruiselines_purserinfo.htm

 

p.s. My Sprint PCS CDMA phone worked perfectly on the Golden Princess far far out at sea away from Chile . $2.49 a minute and no extra LD charges.

[Princess Chatterer]

Passengers are billed by their home cellular service carrier at international roaming rates and don't have to pay extra to use the phone on board. (Cruise lines share in the revenue with the cellular-service providers.)

 

Costs are $1.99 to $4.99 a minute, according to an association survey. Carroll says Cingular charges $2.49 a minute from anywhere at sea to a U.S. city. Data transmission, such as text messaging, usually is 50 cents a minute. Using a stateroom phone for a ship-to-shore satellite call runs $5 to $25 per minute, CLIA reports.

 

Most major cellular service carriers — Cingular, T-Mobile U.S., Sprint Wireless and Nextel — are linked with at-sea service companies, such as WMS and SeaMobile. WMS has agreements with 340 providers, but Verizon is not among them yet. But on ships using SeaMobile, Verizon customers can use their phones.

 

http://www.cellularatsea.com/press/pr082706-shiplinesgetonboard.htm

[DesertDaisy]

Just returned from the Island to Hawaii, we have not received our bill yet, so don't know what our charges will be. We found it interesting that we would charge our phones and within two days we would lose the charge and have dead phones. We were thinking that it was time to buy new batteries, but after returning home our phones are holding the charge as usual. I am wondering if this is a voltage problem! Does anyone know? Have you had the same experience? Thanks, Phyllis

[leo717]

does anyone know about text messages? I just tried to call cingular but they are closed for the weekend!:rolleyes:

[sealegirl]

fyi- i'm originally from Alaska, and we have NO national cell phone providers. Alaskan's only have local companies, and therefore don't have big, national cell towers...therefore more roaming. Most big name cells don't work for free calling out of Alaska, cause Alaskan's would come down to the lower 48, buy a phone and plan, and would "put the little guys out of business"... Call your company and check their service first to avoid any nasty surprises!

[Protirees]

Just returned from the Island to Hawaii, we have not received our bill yet, so don't know what our charges will be. We found it interesting that we would charge our phones and within two days we would lose the charge and have dead phones. We were thinking that it was time to buy new batteries, but after returning home our phones are holding the charge as usual. I am wondering if this is a voltage problem! Does anyone know? Have you had the same experience? Thanks, Phyllis

 

When you are out of range, your phone looks constantly for a signal and will wear down the battery very rapidly. I think this is most likely what happened to you on your trip.

[CCSSDRC]

Just returned from the Island to Hawaii, we have not received our bill yet, so don't know what our charges will be. We found it interesting that we would charge our phones and within two days we would lose the charge and have dead phones. We were thinking that it was time to buy new batteries, but after returning home our phones are holding the charge as usual. I am wondering if this is a voltage problem! Does anyone know? Have you had the same experience? Thanks, Phyllis

 

I have been told power consumption of the phone varies depending on the type of connection it has. Digital cell tower connection, low power consumption and long battery life. Older analog cell tower connection, high power consumption and low battery life.

 

The comments about constantly searching for a signal by another poster also may be true.

[Globaliser]

When you are out of range, your phone looks constantly for a signal and will wear down the battery very rapidly.

In fact, they're even more active than this.

 

Phones are not only looking for a signal. They have to communicate with the base station so that the network knows where the phone is - this is a two-way process often called "handshaking". When the phone is further away from a base station, it will transmit at a higher power than if it's close by.

 

If the phone changes to a different base station, it may have to handshake with the new base station to keep the network updated as to its location. Of course, if the phone is further away from all base stations (eg a mile or so out to sea) it's more likely that it will be switching between them. And it will have to switch, anyway, as the ship moves - which is why phone batteries are also depleted relatively quickly if you're driving long distances.

 

Finally, one factor on ships is that they're made of steel, which is a good barrier to radio waves. So if the phone is inside a ship but trying to communicate with a shoreside base station, reception is likely to be poor, and the phone is likely to be cranked up to maximum power.

 

All of these factors will combine to drain the battery very quickly.

[Coral]

Most major cellular service carriers — Cingular, T-Mobile U.S., Sprint Wireless and Nextel — are linked with at-sea service companies, such as WMS and SeaMobile. WMS has agreements with 340 providers, but Verizon is not among them yet. But on ships using SeaMobile, Verizon customers can use their phones.

 

http://www.cellularatsea.com/press/pr082706-shiplinesgetonboard.htm

 

I was on Crystal the first of January which I believe uses SeaMobile also. I used my Verizon phone a few times and have yet to be billed for the calls. If there is no contract/agreement with SeaMobile - then how do Verizon customers get billed?

 

Has anyone who used SeaMobile recently been billed for their calls?

[SPI_Rick]

This is an interesting and informative thread. I didn't realize that cell phone service was becoming available on so many cruise lines. But, I noticed that the CellularAtSea website only lists one Princess ship (The Grand) as being on the system. Has anyone heard anything about cell phone service on the Star Princess? I'm getting ready for a 27 day cruise on the Star in May and having cell phone service would be useful for a trip that long.

[schoolmarm]

sealegirl

Thanks for the info about Alaska. I did contact Verizon before I left and was told they had service in the major cities. We had phone cards to use when we were roaming. That's why we checked our phones for the roaming signal before making the calls. This is why I disputed the charges as I was given the wrong info by them before I left. I have no problems paying for roaming when I make those calls but felt I was mislead by an uninformed representative of Verizon!