What VOIP phone services does Princess block??

[Videopark]

Some ships block it, others don't. If you do plan to use it, it would be better to do so at odd hours or when few are using the Internet. The reason being that VoIP is a bandwidth hog and you'll slow down everyone else, costing them time and money.

 

If it were me, I'd plan on turning on international roaming and making brief calls when in port. I can do that with my ATT plan for $5.99/month and discounted international rates. While more expensive than VoIP, I can time it exactly and it's more consistent, not to mention more considerate of my fellow passengers. The onboard Internet is never guaranteed and can be extremely slow or non-responsive.

 

I checked with my phone provider and I can get a rate of .30 per minute in GB. This is the rate for "normal" calling from shore, not from sea. My phone can also make calls to Wi-Fi but the bandwidth may be too slow for voice calls. Also, I have seen some comments that Princess may block Skype or VoIP calls.

Edited July 2, 2017 by Videopark

[Steelers0854]

I checked with my phone provider and I can get a rate of .30 per minute in GB. This is the rate for "normal" calling from shore, not from sea. My phone can also make calls to Wi-Fi but the bandwidth may be too slow for voice calls. Also, I have seen some comments that Princess may block Skype or VoIP calls.

 

 

 

The original thread is 6 years old, a considerable amount has changed since then. There are a lot more favorable international plans out now.

 

T-Mobile offers international service in many countries for free and ATT has a $10/ 24hr plan that uses your existing data plan internationally.

[Videopark]

 

T-Mobile offers international service in many countries for free and ATT has a $10/ 24hr plan that uses your existing data plan internationally.

 

My .30 a minute rate is from T-Mobile for England. Other countries and networks may have different rates.

What has not changed is the very slow data speed.

[Videopark]

How much bandwidth does Skype need?

Call type Minimum download / upload speed

Calling 30kbps / 30kbps

Video calling / Screen sharing 128kbps / 128kbps

Video calling (high-quality) 400kbps / 400 kbps

Video calling (HD)1.2Mbps / 1.2 Mbps

Cruise ship data rates vary based on how many people are using the available bandwidth.

VoIP bandwidth

Number of Concurrent Calls 1

Minimum Required Bandwidth 1100 Kbps Up and Down

Recommended speed 3 MBps Up and Down

Edited July 2, 2017 by Videopark

[linanles]

Skype is not true VOIP. As with many things in the IT world many people start using a word/acronym in correctly and it become accepted.

If you have a true VOIP account you can then install a VOIP client on your smartphone and configure it with your VOIP account details. True VOIP is not bandwidth hungry and works well over WiFi. I haven't used it onboard but I have used it via free Wifi services in a number of ports without a problem.

As true VOIP doesn't use much bandwidth and is not that popular I doubt that it is being blocked. The most common IP port used for VOIP is 5060.

[Steelers0854]

Skype is not true VOIP. As with many things in the IT world many people start using a word/acronym in correctly and it become accepted.

 

If you have a true VOIP account you can then install a VOIP client on your smartphone and configure it with your VOIP account details. True VOIP is not bandwidth hungry and works well over WiFi. I haven't used it onboard but I have used it via free Wifi services in a number of ports without a problem.

 

As true VOIP doesn't use much bandwidth and is not that popular I doubt that it is being blocked. The most common IP port used for VOIP is 5060.

 

 

 

How do you figure? VoIP is simply the use of an internet based connection to make a telephone call vs using a traditional phone line, hence Voice over Internet Protocol. Skype is a VoIP service, the bandwidth it uses has nothing to do with it being classified as a VoIP service or not.

[linanles]

How do you figure? VoIP is simply the use of an internet based connection to make a telephone call vs using a traditional phone line, hence Voice over Internet Protocol. Skype is a VoIP service, the bandwidth it uses has nothing to do with it being classified as a VoIP service or not.

VOIP is not simply voice over the internet. The acronym VOIP refers to a specific defined protocol for the transmission of voice over the internet and Skype etc have their own proprietary protocols for voice transmission over the internet. Skype etc could be called voice over internet but it is not VOIP as defined in the VOIP protocol specification. Google is your friend.

[lolane1]

When considering "prime" times, don't forget that the crew also use the Internet to stay in touch with their families. I've found that just like LA traffic, there is no good time; usage can be high from morning until late at night (Midnight.) When passengers aren't using it, the crew is. The one time I've found that is pretty reliable is 6-8-am.

 

Instead of email, I sometimes use texting. It's free incoming and $.50 outgoing. As long as you don't send short messages, it's a relatively inexpensive way to stay in touch. Even on the ship. However, if phone calls are all you want to do and your phone isn't international, then your options are limited. You can't count on using VoIP on the ship; because of your phone, you can't call when in port. You might consider getting a Mobal phone. You pay a one-time charge for the phone (very reasonable) and pay only for actual minutes used; no contract or other service fees. Depending on the phone you get, you can use it either in port or on the ship.

 

You can use your iphone and text over wifi. Turn wifi on and airplane mode on. It's free. Except for wifi charges but if you're platinum or elite you will get free minutes.

[IECalCruiser]

We have AT&T cell service and they offer WiFi calling with our plan. I used that last November on the Pacific in the Adriatic. Have also used WiFi calling from hotels in England and Italy.

 

 

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[Videopark]

Voice over Internet Protocol (also voice over IP, VoIP or IP telephony) is a methodology and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet telephony, broadband telephony, and broadband phone service specifically refer to the provisioning of communications services (voice, fax, SMS, voice-messaging) over the public Internet, rather than via the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

The steps and principles involved in originating VoIP telephone calls are similar to traditional digital telephony and involve signaling, channel setup, digitization of the analog voice signals, and encoding. Instead of being transmitted over a circuit-switched network; however, the digital information is packetized, and transmission occurs as IP packets over a packet-switched network. They transport audio streams using special media delivery protocols that encode audio and video with audio codecs, and video codecs. Various codecs exist that optimize the media stream based on application requirements and network bandwidth; some implementations rely on narrowband and compressed speech, while others support high fidelity stereo codecs. Some popular codecs include μ-law and a-law versions of G.711, G.722, a popular open source voice codec known as iLBC, a codec that only uses 8 kbit/s each way called G.729, and many others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_over_IP

[Steelers0854]

VOIP is not simply voice over the internet. The acronym VOIP refers to a specific defined protocol for the transmission of voice over the internet and Skype etc have their own proprietary protocols for voice transmission over the internet. Skype etc could be called voice over internet but it is not VOIP as defined in the VOIP protocol specification. Google is your friend.

 

 

 

Can you please cite your source because the rest of the technology industry seems to disagree with you. Yes skype uses its own propriety protocol but that doesn't exclude it from being considered a VoIP service. That's just like saying a video isn't a video because it uses an MP4 codec vs avi.

 

http://searchunifiedcommunications.techtarget.com/definition/VoIP

 

https://www.fcc.gov/general/voice-over-internet-protocol-voip

 

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/voip

 

http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/54088/voip

 

http://www.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/cis788-99/ftp/voip_protocols/

[umuva]

If you bring along a tablet, you can download Google hangouts. Calls routed through ships wifi and are free, assuming a microphone on tablet or plug in mike with headphones.

 

 

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[linanles]

If you bring along a tablet, you can download Google hangouts. Calls routed through ships wifi and are free, assuming a microphone on tablet or plug in mike with headphones.

 

Have you tried it? Surely Google Hangouts or any other internet based app needs internet access. Connection to the ship's WiFi gets you to the ship's network but to connect from there to the internet you need to pay for internet access if you are below Platinum status and login.

[linanles]

Can you please cite your source because the rest of the technology industry seems to disagree with you. Yes skype uses its own propriety protocol but that doesn't exclude it from being considered a VoIP service. That's just like saying a video isn't a video because it uses an MP4 codec vs avi.

 

VIDEO is not a protocol standard so any video is video but not all video is MP4. Just as not all voice over internet is VOIP despite the fact that some people have bastardised the term. Another term that is miss used is MP3. Not all music files are MP3 but a lot of people use the term to refer to any music file.

 

For further info see Voice over IP and Federated VoIP in Wikipedia.

 

To save boring the other members of this forum let's leave it there.

[Steelers0854]

VIDEO is not a protocol standard so any video is video but not all video is MP4. Just as not all voice over internet is VOIP despite the fact that some people have bastardised the term. Another term that is miss used is MP3. Not all music files are MP3 but a lot of people use the term to refer to any music file.

 

 

 

For further info see Voice over IP and Federated VoIP in Wikipedia.

 

 

 

To save boring the other members of this forum let's leave it there.

 

 

 

I agree we have gotten off the topic here, but I'm sorry I just don't believe you are stating the correct information. Saying that all voice over IP is not VoIP (which literally means voice over IP) just doesn't pass the logic test, and in every definition I have seen it never states it has to confirm to a standard for it to be classified as such, standards are just that, standards for interoperability. I'm happy to admit my error if I am wrong but unfortunately, Wikipedia is not a credible source as it's a crowd sourced website that anyone can modify at any time. My examples included university research papers and the FCC's website.

[ar1950]

Nothing to add here. Just a comment that it is entertaining to see some of these old threads dredged up and to see how things have changed since they were originally started. Go VoIP!! ;p

 

YMMV

[umuva]

Have you tried it? Surely Google Hangouts or any other internet based app needs internet access. Connection to the ship's WiFi gets you to the ship's network but to connect from there to the internet you need to pay for internet access if you are below Platinum status and login.

 

 

 

Yes, you are using the internet and you either are at least platinum or buy internet minutes. Hangouts has worked well for me. Clear reception.

 

 

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