Cell Phones on board

[donmimi]

After a long discussion with my Verizon representative I now understand what is going on with cell phones on board -- at least on the Nautica. Oceania has installed a CDMA ( the U. S. standard) network onboard, and for $2.49 per minute both incoming and outgoing, you can call or receive calls from anywhere in the world while you are on board ship. I do not know what the charges will be to the caller calling you on board. I suspect they will be whatever rates you have set up for international calling for your phone from your home.

 

This means that you can use your normal US cell phone on board the Regatta from most anywhere in the world while you are onboard -- and within x amount of feet of the ship.

 

For those of you with a GSM phone, Verizon explained that the ship's CDMA network would override this, and you would be charged $2.49 per minute even tho the country calling rate might be lower for your GSM phone -- you will have to literally walk away from the ship to get the lower levels if available on your carrier.

 

NB This is all Verizon information.

 

My Blackberry worldwide download of email is not affected by this set-up -- again according to Verizon.

 

Kudos to Oceania for setting up this program -- even tho its too late for us --we've already invested in an international phone. If you are not Verizon customers I'd suggest calling your local carrier to see if the CDMA network is universal -- I suspect it is -- maybe someone on this board has some input.

 

Donmimi

[hondorner]

My experience with my Sprint CDMA phone is the same as you have outlined, with one important difference. When the ship is in port, the SeaMobile system (the system used on board to read the CDMA phones from Verizon, Sprint and others) is shut off, much like the casinos and boutiques are shut down while in port to preserve local business.

 

Therefore, once you are docked, your Verizon CDMA phone should NOT work, but your GSM international phone should work, if there is GSM service near the port. You will not have to walk away from the ship, unless there is no GSM service within range of the dock.

 

On our recent transatlantic, I made 3 calls from my Sprint phone to my voicemail to see who had called me. I didn't need to return any of the calls. Each of the calls was billed by Sprint at 2 minutes, and each cost me $2.98 on my Sprint bill.

[donmimi]

Just got my paperwork from Oceania and according to that documentation on the SeaMobile service, the phones that will work with the service are GSM oor GPRS devices (ie Blackberry) only, and your calling plan with your service provider must allow you "to make international calls". Also, the rates are charged to you by your cell phone provider, and they may vary. Text messages start at US $.40 per minute. Data services start at US $.08 per 10 KB of data transmitted and billing is in 10 KB increments.

 

Guess the Verizon staff is just coming up to speed on this program as well!

[mrcamp]

Most ships have both GSM and CDMA networks. Yes. you will be billed bu your carrier only. You phone should work as long as your carrier has a roaming agreement with the network provider. Non-GSM verizon phone, whicch is most of them anyway, will nto work in any countries that are GSM only. A handful of caribbena countries sue both CDMA/GSM. Once the ship gets to ceetain miles of the port, the ship's network will be turned off and til it leavs and is certain miles away from port. So, if you have the appropriate phone and your carrier has roaming agreement with any of the port countries youi should be able to use your phone. Again, most verizon phones will not work at port since just about all the countries use GSM.

 

I know that with AT&T and verizon using the ship's network costs $2.49, and $4.99 for tmobile. The cost for using your phone at the port countries varies. Just check with yoru carrier. However, in most cases it will be cheaper than using the ship's network.

[ClaudiaF]

If the phones only work onboard what is so good about that?

Plus cost sounds high to me?

I bought international phone from Mobal.com years ago ( they are a great company) cost is still $49.00 for a phone and no monthly fees:D

You should check into it

[hondorner]

If the phones only work onboard what is so good about that?

Plus cost sounds high to me?

I bought international phone from Mobal.com years ago ( they are a great company) cost is still $49.00 for a phone and no monthly fees:D

You should check into it

No phone works once you have left the cell towers behind on land, unless your ship is equipped with something like the SeaMobile universal tower, which takes most USA phone signals and sends them to land via satellite. The cost is high, but not nearly as high as a satellite call from the ship's phones, which I believe are $8.95 per minute.

 

Your Mobal phone is an excellent alternative once you are on shore, but does you no good at sea. Your USA-based service does you no good on land in the rest of the world outside the USA. It costs nothing to bring your USA based cell phone on board with you, and you can easily determine whether you actually use it or not. I chose to use it a few times to listen to my voice mail on my standard number (not some alternative international number that no one knows), but never got a call that was so important that I had to return it.

 

If you are on a port-intensive cruise where you will be ashore every day, it may not be important to you, but we prefer cruises with lots of sea days -- we spend a lot more time on board than we do ashore. SeaMobile is more important to us, and we don't really care about an international phone.

[marylander2]

I know that with AT&T and verizon using the ship's network costs $2.49, and $4.99 for T-mobile. The cost for using your phone at the port countries varies...

Word of caution to T-Mobile users: if you are OK with $4.99/min outgoing tariff, it's your call :D, but beware of charges for incoming calls - T-mobile tech support told me that ANY incomnig call (even if you decide not to answer it) will be charged at $4.99/min while on SeaMobile service at sea.

If you sign up for international plan (which is free, just inquire with your T-Mobile support), you may call while onshore almost everywhere; rates vary... for example in Asia they are:

$2.99 Vietnam, China;

$1.99 Japan, S.Korea;

$1.49 Hong-Kong, Thailand....

[judithr105]

For those of you with a GSM phone, Verizon explained that the ship's CDMA network would override this, and you would be charged $2.49 per minute even tho the country calling rate might be lower for your GSM phone -- you will have to literally walk away from the ship to get the lower levels if available on your carrier.

 

NB This is all Verizon information.

 

My Blackberry worldwide download of email is not affected by this set-up -- again according to Verizon.

 

Donmimi

 

Thanks for posting this information. I just got a GSM Blackberry hoping that it would be useful on the Regatta while in Europe. My main concern is using the email - it seems from your information that I will not be charged for looking and responding to the email. As for using the phone, will I be charged by Verizon as well as Oceania - sort of a double charge for each minute? I will be going to the Verizon store soon and hopefully they will give me the information I need. It's not that I need to chat to anyone while I am away, however with 3 elderly parents, it is nice to know that someone can contact me if need be.

 

 

Thanks. Judi

[caribbeansun]

On our med cruise last summer on Nautica my GSM Blackberry did not receive any data while on ship unless we were close enough to shore to pick up a signal from shore.

 

The primary additional cost was the roaming fee for data which was an additional $50 per MB of data. I had only two cell calls while on the trip, one from on board Nautica (I assume this was Nautica because it shows the point of origin as Isle of Mann) was charged through at $6.00 per minute and the second which picked up Vodafone in Greece was $2.50 per minute.

 

Bottom-line is expect to pay dearly for air time and if people are in the habit of sending you large files via email the data roaming charge is pretty dear as well.

[donmimi]

After returning from the Feb 13th Oceania trip to the Caribbean, I can update you on my Blackberry as follows: I had no internet service (thru Verizon and associates) once we were at sea -- the SeaMobile did not handle this type of communication. I had my internet service to the Blackberry (for which I pay $65 per month to Verizon for worldwide network) on all the islands EXCEPT the British Virgin Islands - evidently they are not on the service. The SeaMobile was activated by the ship about 15 minutes after we pulled out of port and I had good signal indicators on the phone for phone service only all the time we were at sea. The only two phone calls I made were done at port, so I am assuming they will be part of my Verizon international service - no bill yet to verify.

 

Overall, was very pleased with the way it worked out!

[jc719]

For my AT&T Blackberry (GSM/GPRS/EDGE), I had no coverage while at sea on Nautica. In port and sometimes while near shore, I had the local foreign carrier (if available, which it was almost everywhere) and depending on their capabilities, at least GSM voice (though I never used it). GPRS was required for e-mail or Internet thru the Blackberry browser. EDGE (in those places where it was available) also worked and was faster. I haven't seen any of the charges yet. Several times, I would wake up to a bunch of e-mail downloaded overnight when we passed within range of a shore signal.

 

Sometimes, I would also try manually connecting to different networks (in Settings on most phones) and some worked better than others. It all depends on who has roaming agreements with the primary carrier.

 

In the pre-cruise documentation, they noted that SeaMobile & AT&T were having some contract issues and AT&T customers would not be served by SeaMobile. This proved accurate.