Turning Mobile Phone Off

[abigailuk]

I have been following 'turning wifi off thread below' and have a similar question regarding our phones but regarding texts and calls. We have elderly mothers who like us to keep intouch whilst abroad, mainly through a daily text and say 1 phone call per week. I have never had any problems picking up the local network (I'm Vodafone) from wherever and assume that the same would apply when in each port, so am planning on keeping intouch by text when ashore. However do we need to turn anything off on our android phones to stop incoming calls or texts when onboard.

Thanks

[mandream]

If you don't want incoming calls or texts, you could simply turn off your phone.

 

Mike

[robsaw]

You can also put the phone into "airplane" mode and then re-enable wifi if you want to use the phones web browser or other apps/data onboard but not receive/send voice/text over the cell network.

[ghstudio]

The only way to turn off your phone (voice) is to either put the phone in airplane mode or turn it off....that is, not just the screen off, but the phone itself off. If you don't know how to turn your phone off, find out before you go.

 

Also, before you go, make sure that data roaming is set to off and keep it off for the entire trip. When you are in port, you can turn the phone on and if you have a compatible signal, you will have phone service and LAN capability. Be warned, however, that if you have phone calls waiting, you will incur some cost for the notification to reach your phone. Additionally, if your phone is on in a foreign country and recognized, you will be charged for a call, even if you don't pick it up and the person leaves a voicemail message (nasty gotcha)!!!! It is far far better to leave your phone (voice) off completely and just use skype and free 802.11 (starbucks or any internet cafe/coffee shop) when on shore. If you put your phone in airplane mode, you can activate just the LAN section and the voice side will stay off.

[Peteymil]

If you don't want incoming calls or texts, you could simply turn off your phone.

 

Mike

This is not enough to prevent charges.

[Lsimon]

If you don't want incoming calls or texts, you could simply turn off your phone.

 

Mike

 

This is not enough to prevent charges.

 

OK. I'm stumped. How can you still incur additional charges if your phone is turned off? And if turning off your phone won't prevent charges what will?

[Suzy Smith]

If you are cruising within Europe, Vodaphone have a Eurotraveller deal. Details are on their website:

 

http://www.vodafone.co.uk/personal/price-plans/pay-monthly/eurotraveller/index.htm?icmp=int-vod-hpg-hb-bt1&cid=ppc-goo-b-c10-3324-br

[Peteymil]

OK. I'm stumped. How can you still incur additional charges if your phone is turned off? And if turning off your phone won't prevent charges what will?

 

When your phone is off, you still can be roaming and get incoming texts, voice messages, etc. all which can incur costs. Also, if you have a smart phone, you can be getting updates. It needs to be in airplane mode, and I turn data roaming off.

[BKFlowerMound]

OK. I'm stumped. How can you still incur additional charges if your phone is turned off? And if turning off your phone won't prevent charges what will?

 

Lsimon -- I'm actually shocked that there's something you don't know as you provide such great advice to everyone on this Board.

 

But (and this applies to an iPhone but probably as well to an Android phone), the on/off switch isn't an on/off switch. It's a sleep/wake switch instead. Turning your phone off doesn't really turn it off in that it is asleep not off and you can still incur charges while it's asleep (apparently, some data packets are set to be transferred at certain times even when the phone is asleep). They only way for your iPhone to be truly off is to 1) Put it in airplane mode and 2) go to settings > general > network > and turn Cellular Data off (for good measure, turn Data Roaming off before you turn Cellular Data off).

 

Hope this helps. If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone on cruise critic will correct me.

[Lsimon]

When your phone is off, you still can be roaming and get incoming texts, voice messages, etc. all which can incur costs. Also, if you have a smart phone, you can be getting updates. It needs to be in airplane mode, and I turn data roaming off.

 

Your phone must be different from mine - either that or we have a different definition of "off". When I turn my iPhone off it is powered off and is truly turned off in all sense of the word. None of the things you discuss happen when it is powered off and it can not incur costs. I can put it in standby mode and then the things you discuss would happen, but that is not "off".

[Peteymil]

Your phone must be different from mine - either that or we have a different definition of "off". When I turn my iPhone off it is powered off and is truly turned off in all sense of the word. None of the things you discuss happen when it is powered off and it can not incur costs. I can put it in standby mode and then the things you discuss would happen, but that is not "off".

 

Please just double check with your phone company. Maybe yours is different from ours, but when my daughter turned her iPhone "off" in Central America, it was a $500 lesson for her.

[Lsimon]

Lsimon -- I'm actually shocked that there's something you don't know as you provide such great advice to everyone on this Board.

 

But (and this applies to an iPhone but probably as well to an Android phone), the on/off switch isn't an on/off switch. It's a sleep/wake switch instead. Turning your phone off doesn't really turn it off in that it is asleep not off and you can still incur charges while it's asleep (apparently, some data packets are set to be transferred at certain times even when the phone is asleep). They only way for your iPhone to be truly off is to 1) Put it in airplane mode and 2) go to settings > general > network > and turn Cellular Data off (for good measure, turn Data Roaming off before you turn Cellular Data off).

 

Hope this helps. If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone on cruise critic will correct me.

 

I think we're talking different definitions of what is "off" here. Perhaps better terms would be "Powered off" and "Sleep off". In sleep mode the phone still does everything it does when it is on but the screen is turned off. When it is powered off there is no power going to the phones circuitry so nothing is working - other than the circuit that would sense when the on button is pressed.

 

The iPhone has an "on" switch at the top which also functions as a "sleep/wake" button. Touching this puts it in sleep mode, which may also lock the phone if it is so set. If you hold the button down for a about 5 to 10 seconds then a red power off slide switch shows up on the screen. Sliding this turns the phone off and it is totally "off" at that time and can not send or receive anything, be found by the cellular system, sound alarms nor incur any charges other than those that get incurred merely by the passage of time (such as a monthly service charge). Once the phone is powered off you need to hold the same button for several seconds to power it on (a quick tap will not do it) at which point a little apple appears on the screen and it goes through its start-up procedure which takes minute to complete (more or less).

 

At least that is my understanding. Although if you ask my DW you'll find out that I am occasionally wrong on some things.:rolleyes:

[Peteymil]

I think we're talking different definitions of what is "off" here. Perhaps better terms would be "Powered off" and "Sleep off". The iPhone has an "on" switch at the top which also functions as a "sleep/wake" button. Touching this puts it in sleep mode, which may also lock the phone if it is so set. If you hold the button down for a about 5 to 10 seconds then a red power off slide switch shows up on the screen. Sliding this turns the phone off and it is totally "off" at that time and can not send or receive anything, be found by the cellular system, sound alarms nor incur any charges other than those that get incurred merely by the passage of time (such as a monthly service charge). Once the phone is powered off you need to hold the same button for several seconds to power it on (a quick tap will not do it) at which point a little apple appears on the screen and it goes through its start-up procedure which takes minute to complete (more or less).

 

At least that is my understanding. Although if you ask my DW you'll find out that I am occasionally wrong on some things.:rolleyes:

 

I understand what you are saying, but even after you slide the phone totally off, it still will incur charges from incoming texts, messages, and data.

And I agree with BKFlowerMound, that over the last few years, I have always read your posts and gotten such fabulous advice, that I don't want to see you have a problem with this!!

[mandream]

I understand what you are saying, but even after you slide the phone totally off, it still will incur charges from incoming texts, messages, and data.

 

I'm sorry to disagree, but this is not correct. If the phone is powered down it can incur no more charges than it would if it were in "airplane mode". All airplane mode does is turn of all the phone's radios (phone, wifi, bluetooth, cellular data) - but allows you to use any apps that don't require communication.

 

If someone incurred additional charges while their phone was off, it was because it was actually in standby mode and not off.

 

Mike

[ghstudio]

I understand what you are saying, but even after you slide the phone totally off, it still will incur charges from incoming texts, messages, and data.

And I agree with BKFlowerMound, that over the last few years, I have always read your posts and gotten such fabulous advice, that I don't want to see you have a problem with this!!

 

If your phone is in airplane mode or fully powered off and not in standby, you will be charged the same as if you were at home. You will not incur any foreign surcharge. If you were charged it was either a billing error or you don't understand how to actually turn off your phone.

 

LSimon is correct.

[BKFlowerMound]

I think we're talking different definitions of what is "off" here. Perhaps better terms would be "Powered off" and "Sleep off". In sleep mode the phone still does everything it does when it is on but the screen is turned off. When it is powered off there is no power going to the phones circuitry so nothing is working - other than the circuit that would sense when the on button is pressed.

 

The iPhone has an "on" switch at the top which also functions as a "sleep/wake" button. Touching this puts it in sleep mode, which may also lock the phone if it is so set. If you hold the button down for a about 5 to 10 seconds then a red power off slide switch shows up on the screen. Sliding this turns the phone off and it is totally "off" at that time and can not send or receive anything, be found by the cellular system, sound alarms nor incur any charges other than those that get incurred merely by the passage of time (such as a monthly service charge). Once the phone is powered off you need to hold the same button for several seconds to power it on (a quick tap will not do it) at which point a little apple appears on the screen and it goes through its start-up procedure which takes minute to complete (more or less).

 

At least that is my understanding. Although if you ask my DW you'll find out that I am occasionally wrong on some things.:rolleyes:

 

I perfectly understand what you are saying and that's what I used to think too. I'm saying that I've been told that when you hold the on/off switch and then slide, it's not really off. It's asleep. You could still incur charges and to make sure that you won't, you need to follow the procedure outlined above.

 

Now I think that the real issue has more to do with data than it does texts and phone calls. Thus if you have data roaming off (which is what I have mine set to), you won't be getting any phantom charges because you are out of your network and it won't roam. I'm too cheap to take that chance, however, and follow the procedure I outlined.

 

Regarding being wrong, my wife occasionally says the same thing to me, my usual response is that, "I was wrong once. It was a warm summer day in 1976. I thought that I was wrong about something and I turned out to be right."

[mandream]

I perfectly understand what you are saying and that's what I used to think too. I'm saying that I've been told that when you hold the on/off switch and then slide, it's not really off. It's asleep. You could still incur charges and to make sure that you won't, you need to follow the procedure outlined above.

 

Every phone has a way to shut it off. This may be different for iPhones, Android phones, Windows phones, WebOS phones, etc. Everyone should learn how to turn off (power down) their own phone. Once it's off - it's off.

 

Airplane mode works as well - and it seems that may be easier to learn for some people. However, the fact remains that a phone that has been properly turned off will not incur additional charges.

 

I think it's time for me to move on to other topics....

 

Mike

[fxcarden]

[benjoon]

I always keep my phone on when we are travelling. I make sure celluar data and data roaming is turned off. I also make sure that the location services and notification on my Iphone are switched off. You just can't be sure what uses data up.

 

I receive text messages from home as this is the easiet way to keep in touch. They can find you as soon as you have a signal. Text sent to me are at local prices. I can then decide whether to reply. From China it cost 0.75c to reply which didn't break the bank. Using the phone on Costa it was run from Italy and the calls were cheaper than when in port.

 

The only time I spent money on data was when we had confusion on the airport terminals we were to leave from in LA. This cost me $60 to surf the net but we got to the right terminal in time. It was worth the effort.

[Mercury]

As I understand it when the phone is off there is no chance of incurring costs. The problem comes in whe you turn it on - any updates, data packets etc will then be transferred.

 

(This may only be applicable to South African networks. This came up in our local press when a guy incurred huge costs as a result of cell phone roaming. He could not understand why. Turned out that each time he turned his phone on to make a call any updates that were unable to be transferred when the phone was off transferred when the phone was switched on - and he picked up a huge bill).

[4774Papa]

We don't take our cells on cruises. They don't work in Europe anyway. Another option is buy an international phone card and use pay phones in ports.

[justcrusn]

That if you turn your iPhone "off"

That it could not use data, right?

However, there are large numbers of people who monitor

Their data usage and report that the device did in fact use data

In the middle of the night while turned completely off.

How and why are a mystery, but it seems to be true based on

the number of people reporting it.

 

The best advice remains TURN DATA ROAMING OFF

texts onboard ship are relatively cheap, it's the data that uses $$$$

[Lsimon]

I still don't beleive that an iPhone can use any services when it is powered off as opposed to put in lock or sleep mode. It's hard to prove this as there are no definitive web pages on Apple's, nor ATT's, site that indicate this - perhaps because they don't think you need to tell people that when something is powered off that it no longer on.:rolleyes: I'll accept that I'm wrong only if someone can point out a definitive source (something from Apple or ATT) that says otherwise.

 

I do accept the explanations above about a phone that is off trying to catch up as soon as it is turned on.

 

Fortunately it is easy to turn data roaming off, or leave it off since that is the default setting. I agree with the above posters who indicate that always keeping data roaming off is the best setting. Even if you have purchased an international data plan you want to leave this off when you're not actually using the internet so that you don't inadvertently use up excess data since an iPhone is always doing something when the data link is live.

 

Also - if you do not intend to use your phone for calls or text messages then I agree that it is wise to put it in airplane mode so calls or texts won't catch up with you when you turn on the phone for another purpose. But I still believe that leaving the phone on with data roaming off will avoid any and all cellular data charges. We've gone on 4 European trips and many Caribbean cruises, and only used international data (with a plan) on one of them. On the other three we used the phone regularly for phone calls and text messages, and were billed the published rates with no surprises. We left data roaming off and had absolutely no data charges and when we returned back to the USA (or a USA territory in the Caribbean) we didn't have to change any settings as our data just started working once it was no longer in a roaming area.

[u2cruiser]

As I understand it when the phone is off there is no chance of incurring costs. The problem comes in whe you turn it on - any updates, data packets etc will then be transferred.

 

(This may only be applicable to South African networks. This came up in our local press when a guy incurred huge costs as a result of cell phone roaming. He could not understand why. Turned out that each time he turned his phone on to make a call any updates that were unable to be transferred when the phone was off transferred when the phone was switched on - and he picked up a huge bill).

 

I agree. No charges when the phone is powered off onboard ship, but the problems occur when the phone is turned on to use wifi in ports.

 

Anything using roaming and location, such as map apps will update itself as soon as you power the phone on and charges will be made depending on your contract with your service provider. The only way to stop it is to turn off roaming and location services but still have text and phone functions. Turn wifi on in ports with roaming turned off and you can use the internet for emails etc for free.

 

My biggest charge has been from people texting me photos from home. :(

[robsaw]

However, there are large numbers of people who monitor

Their data usage and report that the device did in fact use data

In the middle of the night while turned completely off.

How and why are a mystery, but it seems to be true based on

the number of people reporting it.

 

No mystery - Impossible

Reality:

a) Person didn't really turn their phone off.

b) The data app is not accurately reporting the usage.

c) A lot of people really don't know how their phone works.

 

I have an Android phone, but similar features and app's are present in pretty much any smartphone to disable "data roaming" (pretty safe) or disable "data" completely (sure fire).