A Little Info on Roaming/Cells at Sea

[TBone2K]

Just got the confirmation back on my roaming plan while I am away on my next cruise. Thought I would share the response in case it can helps anyone else who might be searching for an answer. My cell carrier is Bell Canada, BTW. I just asked for US roaming, I am not concerned about while we are outside US.

 

I x'ed out the prices because I have a business plan on my phone. However I did tell them where I was going, so they made a couple of notes for me that come up here from time to time.

 

"...we have added the requested roaming features effective August 1st, 2012 and set to expire August 31st, 2012. The voice feature will be $xx/month and cover 100mins (toll free numbers and directory assistance (411) are NOT covered) and be billed $x/min over. The data feature will be $xx/month and will reduce the cost of MB’s to $x/MB (including tethering). Text messages will be billed at $x/sent message. The features do not cover usage: on cruise ships, airplanes, and via satellite service.

Yes, Puerto Rico is covered under the US roaming features."

From what I found before, my carrier (Bell) does not offer any plan that would cover cruise ships, so Bell customers are at the mercy of their roaming charges.

[beachchick]

Just got the confirmation back on my roaming plan while I am away on my next cruise. Thought I would share the response in case it can helps anyone else who might be searching for an answer. My cell carrier is Bell Canada, BTW. I just asked for US roaming, I am not concerned about while we are outside US.

 

I x'ed out the prices because I have a business plan on my phone. However I did tell them where I was going, so they made a couple of notes for me that come up here from time to time.

 

"...we have added the requested roaming features effective August 1st, 2012 and set to expire August 31st, 2012. The voice feature will be $xx/month and cover 100mins (toll free numbers and directory assistance (411) are NOT covered) and be billed $x/min over. The data feature will be $xx/month and will reduce the cost of MB’s to $x/MB (including tethering). Text messages will be billed at $x/sent message. The features do not cover usage: on cruise ships, airplanes, and via satellite service.

Yes, Puerto Rico is covered under the US roaming features."

 

From what I found before, my carrier (Bell) does not offer any plan that would cover cruise ships, so Bell customers are at the mercy of their roaming charges.

 

No carrier offers a plan that covers onboard cell calls. That's because the arrangement is between the cruise line and specific carriers who provide the uplink(?) for the service. That is a non-negotiable per minute fee that is unrelated to your regular carrier's charges. It's usually $1.99-$2.49/minute when you are at sea and when your phone says "Cellular at Sea," which is the service through the cruise line and sponsoring carrier for the satellite links and data/time.

 

Sorry. There is no cheap cell phone service or plan at sea. However, the charges for texts are much lower than for calls. I think it's usually about 50 cents incoming and 5 cents outgoing per text. I don't know if that would be helpful to you.

 

beachchick

[setsail]

http://support.bell.ca/Mobility/Network_coverage/Where_can_I_use_my_HSPA_or_LTE_mobile_phone_outside_Canada_and_how_much_will_it_cost

 

Scroll down and select cruise ship or a country

[Mabers]

I too am with Bell Mobility, and as you can see, I cruise a lot.

 

I generally just take a text package for the Caribbean, and and a phone package for the US. ($15 per month for each)

 

Until this last cruise to Bermuda, texts sent from the ship were always included in the package, with unlimited free incoming, so it seemed a good deal to me to have instant contact. This time I was told they were not, so I didn't try. With 3 days in Bermuda and only 3 (split 2/1) sea days, it didn't matter too much, but with 5 or 6 sea days on some cruises, it will be a problem.

 

In the future, with this in mind, I think I will just pay roaming for phone calls in US for car service etc., and rely on internet while at sea.

 

Does anyone have a better idea?

 

Sheila.

[Swath]

Same with Rogers (Fido) their travel packs cover countries and NOT @ Sea. But I have Unlimited Intl. Text as part of my options.