Cell/Mobile Cost While @ Sea

[tcdcruiser]

What is the Princess cost (assume per minute) to use your cell/mobile phone for voice or text while at sea?   For clarity this is not an internet questions but a ship cell tower question.  

 

Searched CC without success. 

 

Safe Travels to All.   Thanks, 

Edited August 28, 2019 by tcdcruiser

[lstone19]

You need to ask your cell phone carrier as the cost depends on the carrier.

 

For instance, I have T-Mobile which I think is $5.99 per minute and $0.50 per sent text (no charge for received texts) with data not allowed. But I've heard some of the other carriers are much less and may have cruise packages.

[The Mikado]

The easiest/cheapest is to connect to the ships wifi/internet and set your phone up to accept wifi calls. Very easy on the iphone. Don't know about Android.

 

The call clarity was fine. None of my clients knew I was on a ship and not in the office.

[cr8tiv1]

24 minutes ago, The Mikado said:

The easiest/cheapest is to connect to the ships wifi/internet and set your phone up to accept wifi calls. Very easy on the iphone. Don't know about Android.

 

The call clarity was fine. None of my clients knew I was on a ship and not in the office.

 

Glad to hear of your success with wifi calling from the ship.  I don't have a landline anymore (entirely different nightmare), but have my iPhone set on wifi calling whenever I am home.  I have a DSL connection that is about 5 Mbps.  Occasionally, I will experience dropped calls because of my internet speed.  

 

I am guess this will work better on Medallion ships.  But if on regular ship internet, it would be spotty at best. 

 

Where is the OP going?  Which ship?  There are several "dead" internet spots in the middle of an ocean.  I understand that this thread is asking about cell phone plans while on a ship.  WiFi calling is a good option, but I would not place my faith in it 100%.

[The Mikado]

29 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Glad to hear of your success with wifi calling from the ship...

We haven't had landlines for almost 10 years ourselves but this is our first attempt to rely solely on wifi for phone service.

 

Surprisingly, considering how execrably slow the internet was on the Grand, I had no issues with phone calls at all. And I probably talked to 4-5 clients plus my back-office people at least every other day.

[cr8tiv1]

2 hours ago, The Mikado said:

We haven't had landlines for almost 10 years ourselves but this is our first attempt to rely solely on wifi for phone service.

 

Surprisingly, considering how execrably slow the internet was on the Grand, I had no issues with phone calls at all. And I probably talked to 4-5 clients plus my back-office people at least every other day.

 

Good to know.  I've never had a need to do this (mostly US ports covered by Verizon).  I am wondering how FaceTime would do?

[wrl001]

Is there a cost to hook up to the ship WiFi?

[Colo Cruiser]

1 hour ago, wrl001 said:

Is there a cost to hook up to the ship WiFi?

Not to view the Patter etc. (Intranet)

But if you want to connect to the internet etc then you need to purchase an internet package.

Depending on the ship they have some pretty good prices on unlimited internet. (MedallionNet ships)

The speed is excellent too.

[The Mikado]

3 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Good to know.  I've never had a need to do this (mostly US ports covered by Verizon).  I am wondering how FaceTime would do?

That I don't know. I should have had my wife try it out; she's the expert.

[Haboob]

14 hours ago, Colo Cruiser said:

⋮

The speed is excellent too.

 

Uhh... Maybe.

 

The "MEO" satellites that provide video-capable bandwidth to passengers are in relatively low orbit over the Equator, and can only be used from within about 48º of latitude of the Equator.  Once you get north of about Seattle or Southampton, your ship is back to using "GEO" satellites with bandwidth that we learned to hate years ago, regardless of any equipment on your ship.

 

The good news is that between 48º N and S, mid-ocean internet dead spots are gone when using the MEO satellites.

[Colo Cruiser]

27 minutes ago, Haboob said:

 

Uhh... Maybe.

 

The "MEO" satellites that provide video-capable bandwidth to passengers are in relatively low orbit over the Equator, and can only be used from within about 48º of latitude of the Equator.  Once you get north of about Seattle or Southampton, your ship is back to using "GEO" satellites with bandwidth that we learned to hate years ago, regardless of any equipment on your ship.

 

The good news is that between 48º N and S, mid-ocean internet dead spots are gone when using the MEO satellites.

Speak English Man!  

Nobody cares about that garbage just give me awesome internet.     😆😆😆

[Haboob]

3 hours ago, Colo Cruiser said:

Speak English Man!  

Nobody cares about that garbage just give me awesome internet.     😆😆😆

 

Then you're going to have to (A) avoid Alaska, the St Lawrence, Greenland, British Isles, Baltic Sea, etc., or (B) wait until someone launches some decent satellites into something other than a relatively low equatorial orbit.

 

Yeah, I want to go all those places, too, and don't want to wait, either.

[CruiseVA]

6 hours ago, Colo Cruiser said:

Speak English Man!  

Nobody cares about that garbage just give me awesome internet.     😆😆😆

The "MEO" sats (Medium Earth orbit), basically they are what are used on the MedallionNet ships. Fast, crazy fast https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/ocean-medallion/medallionnet/

 

[CruiseVA]

Actually, we cruised down the St Lawrence in August, only had a day of slowness, it's a limited coverage area, same is true for some of Alaska..  Go in about 5:07 in this 

 

[satxdiver]

7 hours ago, Colo Cruiser said:

Speak English Man!  

Nobody cares about that garbage just give me awesome internet.     😆😆😆

 

ROFL.  Fast internet is only available from satellites in medium earth orbit (MEO).  The atmosphere above the earth is divided into three bands for satellites.  Obviously from the name, MEO is the middle from 2000 km to 35,786 km above the earth.  The satellites previously used and in some cases still used are in GEO (geostationary earth orbit) and stay in the same location above the earth.  GEO satellites are the major ones used for satellite TV, internet, GPS devices etc.  Due to possible low use and therefore $$$, putting a communication satellite in MEO to cover the polar regions is not very attractive to the satellite companies.  

 

The ISS (International Space Station) is in low earth orbit (LEO) and moves around the earth between 330 and 410 km above the earth.  It orbits the earth at 93 minutes per orbit at a speed of 27.724 kmh.  Now that is fast!

 

Edited August 29, 2019 by satxdiver

[Haboob]

OK, time to take a step back.  The only reason that "MEO" orbits are important is that that is the orbit level that SES was able to place it's O3b satellites.  It's the capabilities of those O3b satellites that is the key to internet-at-sea-just-like-internet-at-home.  Well, that and the fact that Alaska, etc, are out of range of anything in an MEO orbit.

 

The O3b's fly 10 steerable uplink dish antennae instead of 1 omni-directional antenna, so can supply 10 different ships (if they are far enough apart) the equivalent of the entire bandwidth that other (GEO or MEO) satellites provide.  As a result, SES can charge much less for uplink bandwidth and Princess is able to buy much more bandwidth for us with the money we pay for internet packages.