Need help - ran up a big cell phone bill but had Net package

[Iamcruzin]

1 minute ago, Charles4515 said:

Turn on WiFi calling if you can then put it in Airplane mode and see what happens. 

 I turned on WiFi calling and WiFi is off and bluetooth on in airplane mode.

[Iamcruzin]

2 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

What kind of phone are you using?

iPhone 7 with iOS 13.2.3

[Charles4515]

6 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

 I turned on WiFi calling and WiFi is off and bluetooth on in airplane mode.

I looked up how it works. In iOS 13 it’s using AI. Clever. From Apple Support Document for iOS 13. 
 

“If you turn on Wi-Fi or Bluetooth while you're in Airplane mode, they will be on the next time you use Airplane mode, unless you turn them off while in Airplane mode.”

Edited November 26, 2019 by Charles4515

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, Charles4515 said:

I looked up how it works. In iOS 13 it’s using AI. From Apple Support Document for iOS 13. 
 

“If you turn on Wi-Fi or Bluetooth while you're in Airplane mode, they will be on the next time you use Airplane mode, unless you turn them off while in Airplane mode.”

 

Makes sense, a welcome change.

[Iamcruzin]

Just now, Charles4515 said:

I looked up how it works. In iOS 13 it’s using AI. From Apple Support Document. 
 

“If you turn on Wi-Fi or Bluetooth while you're in Airplane mode, they will be on the next time you use Airplane mode, unless you turn them off while in Airplane mode.”

Thank you. That makes sense. I did use bluetooth  while flying. My phone was in airplane mode and I only turned on bluetooth. I wouldn't have even noticed this change if it wasn't for this thread.

[twangster]

A lot of confusing and incorrect information in this thread.  

 

TDLR; use airplane mode long before the ship reaches international water.  

 

I've worked in the cellular industry and participated in the Vitelco (Innovative) upgrade from TDMA to GSM on St Thomas several years back.  Before that Verizon didn't include the USVI in their plans, now they do.  The new radios that were installed also offered CDMA even though Innovative phones for residents didn't need it. 

 

The business case for the upgrade was largely built on roaming fees.  Based on residents alone the upgrade would never make business sense.   AT&T has their own towers on island so they were out of the business case.  Absent of cruise ship guests wandering around the business model on St Thomas would have been very different.

 

Turning off cellular data or disabling roaming won't keep you from getting unwanted charges on your cell bill but the charges (if any) vary with many factors.  

 

Did you know that in some cases with cellular data off but with cellular enabled you can still get charges for incoming voice calls?  Even if you don't answer them.  The reason is that when you phone registers with a foreign "roaming" provider and a call comes in, that call might be fully routed to the roaming provider you are on at that moment.  If the call isn't answered the call is then call forwarded back to the voicemail system of your home provider.  You can be charged for that call forwarded call.  If your caller gives up in time you don't get charged.  If they leave a long winded message you might pay like you answered the call since the call is routing through that foreign provider back to your cellular provider voicemail system.  This is variable depending on many things so not everyone get these "ghost call" charges.

 

Introduce Cellular@Sea.  They are a 3rd party who has negotiated space on cruise ships much like cell companies all over the world negotiate tower space with each other.  They have the roaming agreements in place to facilitate billing.  There connectivity charges are higher because of satellites.  I have no idea what the business model is with a cruise line. I've always assumed the cruise line gets a cut plus some fixed amount for space and power. 

 

While roaming agreements on land have largely dropped in price or have been eliminated due to government regulations in some regions, Cellular@Sea operates exclusively in international water absent of any real government regulation as long as their radios are off when a ship enters territorial water.  Their roaming rates haven't dropped significantly over the years.

 

Some phones will do wifi-assist as mentioned previously to in this thread.  Sometimes wifi is disabled when phones are locked to save battery.  Sometimes wifi coverage is weak in certain areas around the ship.  When a phone isn't in airplane mode that means it might begin to use Cellular@Sea instead of your paid Voom plan even if you have wifi-calling enabled and some spammer calls you to offer health insurance or if FB decides it needs to upload all the personal stuff it just scraped off your phone.  

[broberts]

2 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Makes sense, a welcome change.

 

I'm not so sure. I use airplane mode in a number of different situations. In some situations all transmitters have to be off. In others just the cellular transmitter. So I'd still have to check settings every time.

[Clarea]

3 hours ago, broberts said:

 

I'm not so sure. I use airplane mode in a number of different situations. In some situations all transmitters have to be off. In others just the cellular transmitter. So I'd still have to check settings every time.

 

Sure, no setup is perfect for all situations, but the change will help me in the majority of situations.

[zebra36]

Whew, glad I just have a cheap $10 trac phone.

[MrsKC08]

Unfortunately this is a lesson learned and a mistake on your part. It truly doesn't matter if you aren't making calls or not, your phone will sting "ping" off of any tower, period. As mentioned several times, the best thing to do is to put on Airplane Mode and turn on the wifi. Even with connected to wifi, it still will ping even with "data" off.

[SRF]

20 hours ago, EDiamond22 said:

you can definitely use Bluetooth when in airplane mode, just fyi.  

 

You have to turn it back on after you turn Airplane Mode on.

 

I have noticed, my Apple devices do not always turn off Wifi when going into airplane mode.  I guess Apple figures enough airplanes have wifi now, it saves turning it back on.

[SRF]

21 hours ago, The Fun Researcher said:

Sure enough.(see my screen grab from Verizon).   It’s only while at sea,  but that makes sense because when you are in port you are using that ports cellular service.   I’m not sure why you would buy this $20 monthly plan for a cruise ship when it doesn’t work while at sea. When in Port they shut off the cruise ships cellular services  so I’m not sure when this service would even be usable?   I wonder how they are able to disable cellular data connectivity to the ships cellular service while at sea?

 

You will have cellular services (calls and texts) with this plan.

 

 

[watson61]

On 11/25/2019 at 8:14 AM, bouhunter said:

No matter what we do in regards to wifi access, etc, we ALWAYS have our phones in airplane mode on ships.

 

Yep, I learned this lesson the hard way, as others do. I was on a Pacific coast cruise and got in the habit of taking my phone off airplane mode when we were in U.S. ports (Seattle, Astoria, Oregon) but one night I forgot to put it back into airplane mode before we left the port.  I was awoken in the middle of the night by a beep telling me I had a text and, realizing immediately what happened, I jumped out of bed and saw the text from AT&T warning me I was in international waters and being charged accordingly.  I ended up being charged $80 which stung but after reading about others' experiences, feel I got off lightly.  I knew someone who went on an Alaska cruise and got charged $300 in roaming charges.

[SRF]

18 hours ago, broberts said:

 

Not on the SIM?

 

Not any more.  There used to be things like this stored on the SIM card, but that was in the days before smart phones.  

[SRF]

15 hours ago, hallux said:

To clarify - turning on airplane mode will turn off all radios in most cases, but the ones you want back on (usually Bluetooth and WiFi) can be turned back on after airplane mode has been enabled.

 

Not for all phones.

 

As has been said, iPhones no longer turn off BlueTooth and wifi when turning on Airplane Mode.

 

I had noticed the wifi staying on, but just checked my phone (iOS13.1.3), neither BT nor wifi are turned off.

[SRF]

15 hours ago, bilyclub said:

 

Phones have internal memory and micro sd cards for that. Sim's are for connectivity to the cell network. 

 

Nowdays, but in the past the SIM card was used to store contacts and other things.

[SRF]

14 hours ago, blackshirt said:

That is mostly true but just be aware that when using your carrier’s WiFi calling in a foreign country, it is the same as if you were back in the US connected to a cell tower. You don’t get any roaming charges but calls are treated as if you are calling from the US so if you are in France and call a French number, you will pay international long distance.

 

That depends on your carrier.

 

I have made wifi calls to a local (in a foreign country) number and NOT be charged with T-Mobile.

 

You DO have to dial the + and Country Code to call local numbers.

[SRF]

11 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

SE

 

Have you updated to iOS 13?

 

That maybe why.   

 

I will check my SE when I get home.  I just switched to an XR, but still have my SE.  And it is updated to iOS 13

 

[Clarea]

11 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

Have you updated to iOS 13?

 

That maybe why.   

 

I will check my SE when I get home.  I just switched to an XR, but still have my SE.  And it is updated to iOS 13

 

 

I'm thinking it's an IOS update that now remembers the state of WiFi and Bluetooth in Airplane mode and restores that state,

[SRF]

13 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

I'm thinking it's an IOS update that now remembers the state of WiFi and Bluetooth in Airplane mode and restores that state,

 

I am on 13.1.3 on my XR and it remembers the state of wifi and BT.  Currently, if I go into airplane mode, they stay on.

 

And I just tested, and yes, if you turn them Off in Airplane Mode, then turning On Airplane Mode will turn them Off.

 

Interestingly, if you turn BT On in Airplane Mode, but turn it Off in normal mode, turning On Airplane Mode does not turn BT back on. 😄

[Clarea]

2 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

 ...

 

Interestingly, if you turn BT On in Airplane Mode, but turn it Off in normal mode, turning On Airplane Mode does not turn BT back on. 😄

 

That part seems odd.

[cruisekap]

On 11/24/2019 at 11:28 PM, BuckeyeMark said:

Yesterday as the Explorer steamed for port suddenly my phone beeped in a text.  AT & T was letting me know that I had a big overage on my cell plan!  How is that possible since I had the Key program and Wifi on the boat?  My phone should've been on Wifi and not hitting the ship's cell tower, running up a big bill?!  

 

Would like to better understand how this works.  Should my phone be in airplane mode?  Did Royal drop the wifi and my phone rolled over to the cell service automatically?  I'm unhappy but wondering if this is my fault, and what to do about it. Thanks.

If I recall correctly the instructions for using the ships wifi includes putting your phone in airplane mode.  A tiny piece of paper with instructions was given to me upon embarkation.  I do think it odd that your provider sent you a message about overage.  My provider sends me a text message at the moment that I am "roaming" and prompts me to purchase a roaming package.  It is a great reminder.

[Clarea]

5 minutes ago, cruisekap said:

If I recall correctly the instructions for using the ships wifi includes putting your phone in airplane mode.  A tiny piece of paper with instructions was given to me upon embarkation.  I do think it odd that your provider sent you a message about overage.  My provider sends me a text message at the moment that I am "roaming" and prompts me to purchase a roaming package.  It is a great reminder.

 

We also get that message when we are in a foreign port and our phone connects to the local provider.  However, we get no informational text when connecting to the ship's cell service (Cellular at Sea).

[bobmacliberty]

1 hour ago, SRF said:

Interestingly, if you turn BT On in Airplane Mode, but turn it Off in normal mode, turning On Airplane Mode does not turn BT back on. 😄

 

I was just able to replicate this but also noticed when I turned off Bluetooth that I got a message saying Bluetooth would be automatically turned on tomorrow.  I use it daily in my car so this is a good thing.  Like Bob, I think Apple has a good solution in place related to how Airplane mode, WIFI, and Bluetooth work together.  Fits my needs well.

 

Not at all related, but I just learned of another recent iPhone update that helps me tremendously...Silence Unknown Callers.  With this on, your iPhone silences any callers that are not in your contacts or your recent outgoing call list.  Does a great job of killing robocalls.  If you get a legitimate call from someone who is not in your contacts, they'll be routed to voice-mail and you'll get a notification that the call happened.

[brillohead]

1 hour ago, cruisekap said:

My provider sends me a text message at the moment that I am "roaming" and prompts me to purchase a roaming package.  It is a great reminder.

I'm with Verizon and I also get that text message when the Cellular At Sea towers get turned on and my phone connects to them.  And yes, it was a great reminder before I had Wi-Fi Calling enabled, as I used to keep my phone connected to cellular as long as possible to still be able to receive texts/phone calls.  

Now that I have Wi-Fi Calling, I just turn on Airplane Mode as soon as I board the ship and connect to the ship's Wi-Fi, as I'll still be able to receive calls/texts to my phone number.