Several post-research questions about WiFi and Phone (and texting)

[Citizen Jane]

So, the rates for Cellular at Sea with AT&T are:

 

$30 for 50 minutes of phone time with $1.00 per minute for overage

$60 for above PLUS 100 messages with $0.50 per message for overage

$120 for all of the above PLUS 100MB data

 

But, if you purchase an AT&T International messaging plan $30 gets you 200 messages. I assume, however that you won't be able to text with this plan on Cellular at Sea which means that you are kind of stuck with paying twice the rate of an international plan (except on shore).

 

It sounds like most people in the threads I have read are saying that using the ship's wifi is faster than the AT&T data (which is certainly my experience on land many times as well. Is this what most people have experienced? I'm wondering if I should just buy the phone and text plan and purchase a wifi plan on the ship for data usage. Of course, then if I'm out and about unless I'm someplace with free wifi I'll pay quite a hefty fee, but how often am I really going to do that in the Bahamas. Really?

 

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to be able to answer my phone occasionally because our cat is having to spend time at the vet. All day has been emergent vet care and I still have to pack for cruise and drive to Florida tomorrow.

 

I'd love to be able to text my family if I really need to get a hold of them on the ship which could possibly be done using iChat with ship's wifi plan. Has anyone done that? If so, what were your experiences? Better to use Cellular at Sea for texting or ship's wifi.

 

Is it possible to turn off iMessage via your phone number and only use your email addresses? I'm thinking it is not.

 

Sorry for all the randomness. I've been trying to work this out for a while and lots of bad things have happened in our house the last few days making prep for the cruise nearly impossible.

 

THANKS!:)

[Clarea]

I would not use the data part of AT&T's plan, and just stick with the ship's WiFi. The ship's WiFi will be faster, and is not charged by how much data you use.

[dancinman66]

I also would just stick with the ships wifi and internet package it

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Citizen Jane]

I would not use the data part of AT&T's plan, and just stick with the ship's WiFi. The ship's WiFi will be faster, and is not charged by how much data you use.

 

Thanks, Bob. I was hoping you would chime in and I appreciate your response. That is my gut feeling as well.

[Clarea]

Thanks, Bob. I was hoping you would chime in and I appreciate your response. That is my gut feeling as well.

Also, try to determine how much you might use voice and text. AT&T charges $2.49 per minute for voice calls and $0.50 per text sent, and this is without any plan. You may or may not want to get the plan for Cellular at Sea.

[AustinCruise]

Also, try to determine how much you might use voice and text. AT&T charges $2.49 per minute for voice calls and $0.50 per text sent, and this is without any plan. You may or may not want to get the plan for Cellular at Sea.

 

 

Implied by above is that received texts are free.

 

I turn off data roaming (very first thing).

 

Put phone in airplane mode.

 

A few times a day, I turn on phone for 10 minutes and check for text messages. If I get one, I either text back $0.50 or call $2.49 minute. Or if course of nothing for non-important messages.

 

If iphone, the sending party may need to select 'send as SMS' for the message to be sent. SMS will be queued until you turn your phone on.

 

You also won't get visual voicemail on iphone if data roaming is not enabled. So I rely on SMS text messages to know when there is an urgent issue requiring a retun call.

 

Also could use the ships wifi plan to Imessage chat, but will only work if your signed into the wifi and paying for wifi minutes or unlimited plan.

[Bosjoe]

 

Is it possible to turn off iMessage via your phone number and only use your email addresses? I'm thinking it is not.

 

 

THANKS!:)

 

iMessage can work via email or phone. As long as you have an apple account. I don't own an iphone, but a iPad without a phone number and I use iMessage via wifi all the time.

[Citizen Jane]

iMessage can work via email or phone. As long as you have an apple account. I don't own an iphone, but a iPad without a phone number and I use iMessage via wifi all the time.

 

Yes. I know about using iMessage without a phone number. I also use an iPad and my daughter uses my second apple account to text me from her touch (well, not really a touch, a hand-me-down iPhone without a sim card which she uses as a touch). This is one of the handiest things about iMessage.:) However, I don't want to haul around the iPad just to send or receive texts on the ship.

 

What I was talking about above is trying to figure out whether I can deselect the phone in the list of enabled addresses/numbers in settings. So far I can not do this and I suspect it is purposefully set up this way on the phone.:rolleyes:

Edited August 10, 2014 by Citizen Jane

[Bosjoe]

Yes. I know about using iMessage without a phone number. I also use an iPad and my daughter uses my second apple account to text me from her touch (well, not really a touch, a hand-me-down iPhone without a sim card which she uses as a touch). This is one of the handiest things about iMessage.:) However, I don't want to haul around the iPad just to send or receive texts on the ship.

 

What I was talking about above is trying to figure out whether I can deselect the phone in the list of enabled addresses/numbers in settings. So far I can not do this and I suspect it is purposefully set up this way on the phone.:rolleyes:

 

The phone is no different then the iPad. The key difference is with the iPad I can not text people without iMessage. With the phone you can text people who don't have iMessage it converts iMessage into a SMS, which shows up in green text on the screen.

 

iMessage works through data plans on the phone or iPad. No data on the phone then it's SMS message.

 

So if you have the phone on airplane mode and just wifi on, you will be able to iMessage other people via their phone number as long as they have iMessage. When you go through your phone book, numbers, names highlighted in blue have iMessage.

 

When you say deselect are you referring deselecting your number?

Edited August 10, 2014 by Bosjoe

[setsail]

Why do you need data?? We always carry a dumb phone, texting and making calls/receiving calls is never a problem as long as there is a signal. On a ship, everyone uses the same cell tower no matter

 

We don't need apps to text or make calls

Edited August 10, 2014 by setsail

[Citizen Jane]

The phone is no different then the iPad. The key difference is with the iPad I can not text people without iMessage. With the phone you can text people who don't have iMessage it converts iMessage into a SMS, which shows up in green text on the screen.

 

iMessage works through data plans on the phone or iPad. No data on the phone then it's SMS message.

 

So if you have the phone on airplane mode and just wifi on, you will be able to iMessage other people via their phone number as long as they have iMessage. When you go through your phone book, numbers, names highlighted in blue have iMessage.

 

When you say deselect are you referring deselecting your number?

 

Thanks Bosjoe. I completely forgot that I can selectively re-enable only the Wifi in airplane mode. Of course, then I still have the phone off. The only reason I need the phone on is that we had to take our cat to an emergency vet on Saturday and then to another vet (our vet sees patient on Saturday but was overwhelmed) to be boarded instead of staying at our house while we are out of town. He has a pretty serious problem and if the vet calls, I want to be able to answer. If I don't have the phone on, the way my luck is going the vet will definitely call. So it is a combination of caution and voodoo.

 

But, your other explanation of the SMS is perfect. Thanks for reminding me of the nuts and bolts.

 

I meant, when you open Settings > Messages > Send & Receive you get a list which starts with your phone number and continues with any other emails/email aliases you use for iMessage. The phone number is grayed out and automatically selected...so that is what I was thinking of deselecting, but I'm so tired I'm not even sure what I'm thinking!:eek:

 

WAIT! I just realized part of the problem is I'm running and old iOS on the phone. Ignore everything I just said. I'm gonna bite the bullet and upgrade my iOS before I leave the house for the ship (in the next hour). I think I can set the email address to be preferred for texting in iOS7 where you can't in earlier versions.

 

THANKS EVERYONE!!!

[Bosjoe]

You can also shutoff cellular roaming data on the phone, then leave the phone on to receive phone calls and text they will come through as SMS. And use a wifi package for your data. This way the phone will be on to take a phone call. If you think your going to use more then 12 mins of phone calls then add the $30 plan for 50 mins.

 

I hope your kitty makes it through ok.

Edited August 11, 2014 by Bosjoe