Warning!!! AT&T and cruising

[MindTheGap1918]

Airplane mode cuts you off from the network, meaning no calls, texts, internet connection, data downloads, etc. It means no signal is coming in or leaving the phone. You can still access some of your apps (that don't require a network connection) and iPod.

[BeccaBecca1713]

My husband has to leave his on at all times for work. He has the iPhone and should leave it on airplane mode. We have unlimited data, calls, and texts.

We should be ok then, right?

 

 

No!!!!! Your "unlimited" plan is only effective when in the States. Keeping it in Airplane mode is good to keep certain data from being pushed. But if he has to access emails/send receive texts, then it has to be out of Airplane mode. Then you will come home to a massive bill. If he is allotted vacation leave but still must keep "connected" to his company then somehow that cellphone should be written off on expenses.

[amy_ammo]

Ok, I just looked under my settings. You can keep cellular data on and turn of data roaming... so if you have data roaming off, you won't get data if you take the phone out of airplane mode, and if you have cell data on, you'll have access to phone, vm and text.

 

I was in Mexico for 5 days. I cleared my inbox as long as I could and then turned to airplane mode for the week. Once I finally checked email back in the states, I had over 1,000 messages. And my co-workers knew I was on vacation! So if they want me to check it/be available, then they'll pay for it.

[careywv]

I was just discussing what to do with our iPhones with my DH for our upcoming cruise. So, I guess we should just turn the phone completely off as soon as we get in our cabins and leave them off? Will turning it off and leaving it off until we get back into Mobile prevent the extra charges? I wanted to be able to use it for an alarm clock, but now I'm afraid to even turn it on.

 

DH and I both travel with our iPhones. As soon as the ship leaves port, we put both phones in airplane mode. You can still use the apps that don't require internet, iPod, calendar, and clock features. Usually when we get to our first port of call, we will turn on one phone and make a quick call back home and then it's back in airplane mode until we return to the US.

[MrsBlair]

Simple solution - turn the phone on airplane mode as soon as you board the ship and leave it that way until you get back to the states.

 

You can still turn on wifi and use the internet if you like, still use the iPod function, still use the alarm clock...

[BeccaBecca1713]

Apple could save a lot of folks some major headaches if they would just rename it "Airplane/CRUISE" mode! :D

[BeccaBecca1713]

Simple solution - turn the phone on airplane mode as soon as you board the ship and leave it that way until you get back to the states.

 

You can still turn on wifi and use the internet if you like, still use the iPod function, still use the alarm clock...

 

But be forewarned that you will pay a per minute Internet fee for using Carnival's wi-fi. And it ain't cheap!!!!

[amy_ammo]

thanks for posting the cost of the wifi. I had to think about it and was about to post a question on how would that work. Because I can check my work email through a web application and not have it count as data!

 

and as much as I know I'm on vacation and I shouldn't worry about it. I can't STAND to clean out my inbox after a trip. So if I could go once a day and check, it would be awesome. But not for $1 a minute because I'm sure the connection isn't as fast (captive audience and all ;-))

[cruisingmore]

what exactly is airplane mode? I've been sitting here going thru my blackberry torch looking for that setting--is that just an iphone setting.

 

I did find where to turn off all data.

 

Thanks for this thread--very helpful..

[tweak89]

The president of my company racked up a $2500 phone bill (on AT&T) while out of the country. It was all due to data usage on his iPhone. He did not turn off the sync/data function and since he is the president he gets a LOT of e-mails. He thought nothing of it until our HR rep got a call from AT&T about the bill that was being run up.

 

When the wife and I were in Italy I popped my SIM card into a cheap pay as you go phone (we are on T-Mobile) that was not capable of doing anything but making calls and texting. We called T-Mobile before we left to inquire about using our phones out of the country and were told to make sure to turn off all data access on the phone to avoid the ridiculous charges.

[waterbound]

wow!! sorry to hear this.. I would be sick if that happened to me.. I guess I will be leaving my phone at home when I go on my cruise.. DH will bring his as he always does, but we've never had this problem, so he must have it set correctly..

[Haoie]

Holy cow, $4000?

 

This tops the $800 horror bill story I read a while back for a few phonecalls each day.

[bankerbabe]

We've travelled to Mexico with our iPhones (three of them - one for son, and my husband and I each have one) and we just turned off the data plans. No surprise costs when we returned home. We had our son's best friend with us, and I wanted his mom to be able to contact us if she needed to.

 

By turning off the data roaming, but not going into airplane mode or turning off wi-fi, you can still send and receive calls and texts. But with wifi on, you can take advantage of free wifi hot spots to check email. My husband used it as an excuse to take the boys to Hooters. Nice.

 

I googled "how to prepare iphone for international travel" and came up with this helpful article: http://consumerist.com/2009/09/how-to-prepare-your-iphone-for-international-travel.html

 

I am sure if you googled around even more you would find additional articles.

 

Side note: don't forget to turn the data roaming back ON. Oops. DS's iPhone spent the last 10 months with it turned off because I forgot to turn it back on for him. No wonder he couldn't get 3G.

[okwriter]

I refuse to "sleep with the devil" (read: use AT&T).

Even so, I turn my cell phone OFF the minute I step on board.

 

Sorry this happened to you. Good luck getting it resolved.

[bankerbabe]

I refuse to "sleep with the devil" (read: use AT&T).

Even so, I turn my cell phone OFF the minute I step on board.

 

Sorry this happened to you. Good luck getting it resolved.

I totally understand where you are coming from. But now that I've had an iPhone for two years - I have NO IDEA how I lived without it.

[zqvol]

Any data sent to the phone gets charged to your account whether you open the e-mails, texts or not. That is why simply turning off wifi isn't good enough because there is a cell tower ON THE SHIP that sends all cell data to the phone or device that looks for cell service (3g kindle etc). Wifi only covers internet service not cell service.

 

Turn it off, take out the sim card and lock it away to avoid any unwanted charges. Cellular at Sea is expensive to use but handy if you need it in case of an emergency. Digital alarm clocks are cheap if you need an alarm.

 

Let's do a little over kill. Put your phone in airplane mode if it must be on. That stops all data, both 3G and wi-fi and prevents charges.

[ATLCruiseJunkie]

what exactly is airplane mode? I've been sitting here going thru my blackberry torch looking for that setting--is that just an iphone setting.

 

I did find where to turn off all data.

 

Thanks for this thread--very helpful..

 

Crusingmore - that's a term for turning off all data that iPhone and some other platforms use. On the Torch, from the home screen open your options from he top of the screen, and then just select "Turn All Connections Off". Now it won't receive calls or data, but you can still use the other features like music, calendar, and other non-data or internet required apps. If that's what you did, then you're all set!

[cortneyward]

About an hour ago, I found my phone had been "suspended". When I called and repeated my story (10 times in 5 days) they offered an International Package. I had previously been told that I wasn't eligible for a package since charges were accrued while on a cruise. Now I'm being told that the actual charges accrued while in Mexico so I AM eligible for the package. Basically, I will be paying $250. I made sure they were aware that I was unhappy about paying even that for something I wasn't made aware of but clearly it's better than $4000. My phone service has been restored as well. I am planning to call back because I reviewed my account. My "normal" data usage per month is 60MB (going back a year). Other than that week for this month, I've used 55MB. Yet for some reason, I used 209MB for that 5 days? Does that sound "off" to anybody else?

[gtalum]

Let's do a little over kill. Put your phone in airplane mode if it must be on. That stops all data, both 3G and wi-fi and prevents charges.

 

Airplane mode does not kill wifi (or bluetooth, for that matter), only the cellular radio.

[amy_ammo]

yes it does. And good for you for doing your homework. I'd call them back, ask for a supervisor and explain just as you did above. GOOD LUCK!

[BeccaBecca1713]

Airplane mode does not kill wifi (or bluetooth, for that matter), only the cellular radio.

 

I'm sorry that's not correct. Per apple.com:

 

Airplane mode disables the wireless features of iPhone to comply with airline regulations.

While airplane mode is on, appears in the status bar at the top of the screen. No phone, radio, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth signals are emitted from iPhone and Global Positioning System (GPS) reception is turned off, disabling many of iPhone’s features.

 

When you turn on airplane mode, the following wireless connections/receivers are turned off:

• Cellular (voice and data)
  
• Wi-Fi
  
• Bluetooth
  
• GPS
  

The only way you could then access wi-fi is if you deliberately go to settings and deliberately turn wi-fi to 'on.'

[gtalum]

I'm not sure why their website says that. I can confirm that I can use wifi on my iPhone 3G when airplane mode is activated . Perhaps in previous versions of iOS this is not true. Wifi has been allowed on airplanes for several years now.

 

Edited to add:

 

The only way you could then access wi-fi is if you deliberately go to settings and deliberately turn wi-fi to 'on.'

 

My apologies, I missed this line the first time. You're right, on some phones you do have to reactivate wifi, but you're still in airplane mode. This behavior is not true of all smart phones.

[BeccaBecca1713]

I have a 3GS from last year. When I have Airplane Mode on, I cannot access internet. :confused:

[happy cruzin]

We've travelled to Mexico with our iPhones (three of them - one for son, and my husband and I each have one) and we just turned off the data plans. No surprise costs when we returned home. We had our son's best friend with us, and I wanted his mom to be able to contact us if she needed to.

 

By turning off the data roaming, but not going into airplane mode or turning off wi-fi, you can still send and receive calls and texts. But with wifi on, you can take advantage of free wifi hot spots to check email. My husband used it as an excuse to take the boys to Hooters. Nice.

 

I googled "how to prepare iphone for international travel" and came up with this helpful article: http://consumerist.com/2009/09/how-to-prepare-your-iphone-for-international-travel.html

 

I am sure if you googled around even more you would find additional articles.

 

Side note: don't forget to turn the data roaming back ON. Oops. DS's iPhone spent the last 10 months with it turned off because I forgot to turn it back on for him. No wonder he couldn't get 3G.

 

That is not making sense to me :confused:. "Data roaming" off should not effect his ability to access data while on his home network - because that is not roaming. iPhones shipped from Apple arrive with "data roaming" off as the default setting.

 

Are you sure you didn't mean to say that you need to turn "cellular data" back on?? That might be what stopped him from access once he was home.

[lbradford2]

I haven't read this entire thread but on an iPhone be sure "location services" is turned off as well. This is the gps feature that allows your phone to know where you are.