Cell phones?

I've heard of cruisers on their Alaskan cruises running up cell phone bills in the hundreds of dollars. Has this happened to anyone?

Well, upon last check, Alaska was part of the United States. So, if your roaming plan included free service in the USA, you should be OK.

Ditto for calls to and from Hawaii.

Cell phones should be fine in major cities (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, etc.) but, if you are cruising, they often don't work away from ports.

We're on Verizon's plan that covers the United States and in September we were able to use our phones in Ketchikan & Juneau with no additional charges. I don't believe we had any coverage in Skagway. Since we did not take DDs on that trip, it was nice to call and check in with them a couple of times.

Well, upon last check, Alaska was part of the United States. So, if your roaming plan included free service in the USA, you should be OK.

 

Ditto for calls to and from Hawaii.

I believe what the poster is referring to is what happened to me on our Cruise last May. I do have nationwide coverage with no roaming, and I racked up charges in the $150 range!:confused: Talk about aftershock when my next cell bill arrived???

Here's what happened: I was very careful to not use my phone on the ship. When we arrived in ports I did use it while sitting on our balcony, but knew I had roaming, so I was safe, right...WRONG. The Summit is one of the ships that has new technology where you can use your cell phone on the ship. They are supposed to turn off the technology when they get arrive in ports, but it's evident that doesn't always happen. The key is that you are charged from whatever tower picks up your signal. Therefore I would also be careful when standing near a ship that has the new towers on board.

By the way, after many phone calls, I did have success in convincing Cingular to take the charges off my bill. This year I will make sure it doesn't happen again, because others reported on the boards, that they weren't so fortunate and they had to pay the bills!

okay, at the risk of sounding stupid here, why would you have been charged while using the phone in port but on your balcony? Do you mean the signal is picked up thru Canada or ???? and then charged as an international call? Or do the ships being registered in another country have anything to do w/ it? We have Cingular also. I'm glad you posted as I know my husband will want to use his phone to check on his business and we will want to check on our kids. It sounds like bottom line is to only use it on solid ground in Alaska!

Two more reasons pax receive large phone bills:

1. Alaska has quite a few independent cell phone providers who are NOT connected with roaming agreements normally in the US (Verizon, Altel, Cingular, etc). If your call happens to hit one of their towers, you will be charged roaming. This also applies when you are close to the Canadian border-if your call happens to hit a Canadian tower, you will be charged roaming.

2. If you have a tri-band or quad band phone (analog/digital or analog/digital/gsm), you may hit the analog towers that are owned by local providers, which are designed for local service. This happens quite frequently in the inside passage (when you are out of the towns). We send employees to Alaska every summer to coordinate our fish shipments and some have run up roaming charges in excess of $600.00 (Verizon in analog mode). I have had to get digital only phones for use in Alaska. Cuts back on the amount of phone calls my employees can make, but keeps the roaming charges in check.

I believe what the poster is referring to is what happened to me on our Cruise last May. I do have nationwide coverage with no roaming, and I racked up charges in the $150 range!:confused: Talk about aftershock when my next cell bill arrived???

 

Here's what happened: I was very careful to not use my phone on the ship. When we arrived in ports I did use it while sitting on our balcony, but knew I had roaming, so I was safe, right...WRONG. The Summit is one of the ships that has new technology where you can use your cell phone on the ship. They are supposed to turn off the technology when they get arrive in ports, but it's evident that doesn't always happen. The key is that you are charged from whatever tower picks up your signal. Therefore I would also be careful when standing near a ship that has the new towers on board.

 

By the way, after many phone calls, I did have success in convincing Cingular to take the charges off my bill. This year I will make sure it doesn't happen again, because others reported on the boards, that they weren't so fortunate and they had to pay the bills!

Yes, what I referring to was about calls made while still on the ship, whether in port or nearing Victoria or even Seattle. Previous cruisers have indicated their calls went through the cell tower on the ship which was very expensive per minute of calling.

When you roam with a cellphone, there will always be some indication on the screen of whom the roaming partner is at that moment. The prudent thing to do before leaving home would be to check the roaming partners for your particular carrier in the places you are going. If an unfamiliar name pops up, wait until later.

You mention the Summit. We were on the Constellation in Europe last summer, a newer sistership. I made many calls from inside and outside the cabin, and it was always evident whom the roaming partner was, usually Vodafone. It wasn't cheap doing this, but I had no surprises. In fact, I did the same thing on the Golden Princess in the Med the year prior, and again no problem. Perhaps having a Cingular Treo 650 GSM quad-band phone made a difference in Europe, I don't know.

In Alaska 2 summers ago on the Serenade of the Seas, same thing. Never an overcharge problem with national free roaming. Most of the roaming partners as I recall were Cingular. They have a big presence in Alaska.

To clarify: My situation was due to the cell tower on the ship, not the signal being picked up by towers on land. The notation on the bill clearly stated the charges were from the cruise ship. The reason Cingular finally absorbed the charges was because they said there was no indication of roaming. By the way, I did have nationwide coverage, so normal roaming was covered.

Paulmj, as I remember in speaking to Celebrity last summer, the Summit was the first ship to use the new technology.

Since I will be on the Summit again this May in Alaska you can be sure I will make sure of the details of what the indicater will be on the phone before using it!

By the way, from what people in Alaska told me, of all the various cell phone companys, Cingular's coverage is the most widespread in Alaska.

We actually don't have Cingular as a company up here. What happened is we had AT&T and then AT&T and Cellular One traded California and Alaska sites so I am now Cellular One but seem to interface with the Cingular network no problem, except in Salt Lake City airport where I can't make a dang call on my phone. Can text message and receive calls, but can't make one and of course no one knows why!

Susan in Anchorage :)

We actually don't have Cingular as a company up here. What happened is we had AT&T and then AT&T and Cellular One traded California and Alaska sites so I am now Cellular One but seem to interface with the Cingular network no problem, except in Salt Lake City airport where I can't make a dang call on my phone. Can text message and receive calls, but can't make one and of course no one knows why!

 

Susan in Anchorage :)

Susan, what I didn't mention is that same person told me she wanted to have Cingular because it was cheaper than the rest and had to go to Seattle to get it. Does that sound right?

what about Sprint?

Could be. She'd have to have a Seattle area code then. So if anyone wanted to call her from a land line that lived here would incur a long distance charge. Not sure if it would make them roam or not on a cell.

No we do not have Sprint in Alaska. The current ones are all local based but do hook up to some of the national ones at no roaming. Here in Southcentral we have Cellular One (which is actually owned by Dobson out of Oklahoma), GCI, Alaska Digitel, ACS (local phone company). That's what I can think of right now. Some of the companies have moved to a GSM network, so not sure how that affects older phones and signals.

Will you be able to pick up a signal, probably, I usually can, both in state and out of state, will you incur roaming, I have no idea. Guess you wouldn't know until you turn on your phone. I do know when you look at a local of the big companies network maps Alaska has a lot of area not covered. Guess that happens when you're the biggest state in the nation :D

Susan in Anchorage :)

When you roam with a cellphone, there will always be some indication on the screen of whom the roaming partner is at that moment. The prudent thing to do before leaving home would be to check the roaming partners for your particular carrier in the places you are going. If an unfamiliar name pops up, wait until later.

 

Guess it depends on the phone. Motorola and some of the Samsung's tied to Verizon merely state roaming-no company (we have 48 in our company and I have checked most of them).

In the lower 48, most of us have phone agreements which have no fee roaming. However, there are even places in the lower 48 which roam with fees. My business is in an area where the calls bounce off 1 of 3 towers. The ATT/Cingular tower is free roaming with Verizon. The other two are not and either charge HUGE roaming fees or require you to input credit card or home phone number info before your call goes through.

Same thing in Alaska-lots of local providers and IF your call happens to hit their tower and they do not have a roaming agreement with your company, you will be charged roaming.

I know with any cell phone I have ever had, when you move into roaming the phone displays it or sounds a tone.

No we do not have Sprint in Alaska.

In looking at the coverage map for Sprint I see they have no Nationwide Calling zones in Alaska but it does show the Antalog roaming - so I would think you could still use your phone - it's just going to cost you. Right?

yeah, probably. I'll have to look into it. Maybe by next year they wil have sprint <G>.

I'm traveling with other family members, I'll have to see which phones they have.

I'm making my DH take a lot of time off from work, he'll have to check in once in a while whether it costs us or not.

I have used Verizon for years in Alaska with my nationwide plan, my other phone on America's Choice will encounter roaming charges in some areas. No service in Skagway but in interior Alaska, some dead spots but overall great service. Could not get messages however, they all stacked up and came in when I got to Seattle. :) Incoming calls can also be spotty. No problems with the outgoing.

I don't see any big name national companies coming into here any time soon. As I said AT&T already sold us out a few years ago. With us being so far spread out, don't think they want to be investing in the cell towers.

Susan in Anchorage :)

I don't see any big name national companies coming into here any time soon. As I said AT&T already sold us out a few years ago. With us being so far spread out, don't think they want to be investing in the cell towers.

 

Susan in Anchorage :)

Sue...AT & T went to Cingular and now that AT & T is buying up Bell South, it seems that Cingular will again be AT squared...lol

Yeah but since they traded us once to Cellular One, I don't see them coming back.

Should be interesting with the latest merger. I have relatives in the St. Louis area that would for Bell South, which actually used to be Southwestern Bell.

Susan in Anchorage :)

Anyone know about T-mobile's coverage at ports in Alaska?