topic Re: Cellular at sea in Get Support

Cellular at sea

mimmo — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 09:06:01 GMT

Just thought I would post an observation/ bug

Currently on a cruise to. Mex enjoying some sun and missing the rain (not so much)

Anyways my cell connected to the ships cel At sea network, and to my surprise I can receive texts and it seems I can also make and receive calls.

I can not send texts as no USA add-on is purchased.

Not sure how long this bug will last but thought I would share.

Re: Cellular at sea

makkahn28 — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 08:06:11 GMT

At least that sounds like a wonderful Bug.

Really wish Public can initiate TRUELY Global Roaming at some point

Re: Cellular at sea

Korth — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 09:57:13 GMT

Public Mobile uses the Telus network. And Telus is partnered with the following cruise ship wireless operators to provide "roaming" services:

AT&T Maritime voice sms
Jersey Maritime "Navitas" voice sms
Manx Maritime Services voice sms data
MCP (Norway) voice sms data
OceanCell (Island) voice sms
SeaNet (Sweden) voice sms
Telecom Itality Martime voice sms
Vodafone Malta "WINS" voice sms

Beware that every cruise ship offers some kind of offshore wireless access, but many (or most) are not Telus partners. They will be "roaming" services ... some of them may require you sign up or prepay for their roaming rates ... but some may provide this extra service as something you've already signed up for and append the roaming costs to your final bill. And cruise ship roaming rates can be extremely high (say $3~$6 per minute talk, $0.50~$1.50 per text or attachment, and up to $15~$20 per MB of data). Billed through the cruise company, not through PM.

If you're uncertain then it might be best to re-read your cruise ship contract, or ask one of the staff, or simply turn off your phone's data, lol.

Re: Cellular at sea

mimmo — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 12:14:12 GMT

@Korth @@@great info, we are prepaid however so we can not be charged anything. My understanding of roaming is that It simply should not work

Edit : tagged wrong person

Re: Cellular at sea

Korth — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 11:43:23 GMT

I'm guessing your ship provides one of those Telus-partnered MVNOs. Don't know, to be honest, but I speculate it's not an "oversight" nor a "bug".

Re: Cellular at sea

mimmo — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 12:20:15 GMT

@Korth not sure what to call it, other than an interesting surprise. I just know it should not work like the sms foeen't

On a side note bought a local sim for 100 pesos 7$can Ang got 30 days north america calling and 1gb data. :). I hate comparing our prices with other countries lol

Re: Cellular at sea

will13am — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 13:18:36 GMT

wrote:
@Korth not sure what to call it, other than an interesting surprise. I just know it should not work like the sms foeen't

On a side note bought a local sim for 100 pesos 7$can Ang got 30 days north america calling and 1gb data. :). I hate comparing our prices with other countries lol

Enjoy your break away from winter and high cell prices. I used to make this comparison all the time. Then I started looking at the bigger picture. If you want to pay $7 a month for cellular service instead of $40, you have to live in Mexico in this particular case. No knock against Mexico, we beat them handily on most livable countries in the world surveys.

Re: Cellular at sea

closng — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 14:41:43 GMT

That is awesome to hear (that you're taking some time off to go on a cruise)!

Oh and thanks for reporting back on those findings, that is interesting indeed. Which cruise are you on?

Hope you enjoy the sun and time away from the PM community!

Re: Cellular at sea

mimmo — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 15:16:08 GMT

@closng on the grand princess 10 days return from San Fran.

Waiting to disembark at mazatlan. Using mexican sim to browse web, ship internet so slow and costly.

@Brooke_C or @CS_Agent any ideas why phone works with cruise ship cellular at sea network? Oversight, bug, by design?

Re: Cellular at sea

Mary_M — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 15:21:33 GMT

Hey @mimmo,

That does sound rather odd - we would need to inquire about this because I don't have a definite answer for you. If it is a bug though, that's a lucky one!

Cheers,

Mary

Re: Cellular at sea

Acekiller — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 22:21:11 GMT

wait for this loophole to get shutdown tomorrow, but the other year-old bugs hang around waiting.

Re: Cellular at sea

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 22:23:31 GMT

@Acekiller, I wouldn't bet on that. There is at least one other loophole in the system that has been around for a while and hasn't been fixed either. It's related to provincial talk & LD.

Re: Cellular at sea

Luddite — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 01:10:58 GMT

wrote:
@Korth@ @@@great info, we are prepaid however so we can not be charged anything. My understanding of roaming is that It simply should not work

Edit : tagged wrong person

@mimmo If you are charged for the service it will be in your bill from the ship not Public Mobile.

Re: Cellular at sea

kav2001c — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 12:48:13 GMT

@mimmo I think what he was trying to say was the cruise ship itself may be billing you

Public would not

(alternatively, the cruise ship may not recognize Public Mobile since the SIM self identifies as Telus and it may indeed be a bug)

Re: Cellular at sea

kav2001c — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 12:49:24 GMT

@Anonymous bah you want to talk long term bugs? The data bug has not been fixed and that has been around since Telus first introduced SIM cards

Re: Cellular at sea

mimmo — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 13:36:46 GMT

wrote:
@mimmo I think what he was trying to say was the cruise ship itself may be billing you

Public would not

(alternatively, the cruise ship may not recognize Public Mobile since the SIM self identifies as Telus and it may indeed be a bug)

I believe that is the case. @Luddite

I asked the staff and the cellular at sea is charged by my provider, they have nothing to do with it. So I will wait for PM to send me the bill. Not that I am really making calls all day long.

The other strange part was that sending texts was considered US roaming but not the calls.

@kav2001c I believe the long-distance bug you are referring to is being able to receive calls while out of province, not sure the data one you mentioned.

Time to put on some sunscreen.hows the weather up north?

Re: Cellular at sea

closng — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 15:56:00 GMT

wrote:
Time to put on some sunscreen.hows the weather up north?

It's cold and frigid with no signs of the sun, stay right where you are for as long as you can!

*Pops a vitamin D pill*

Re: Cellular at sea

sheytoon — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 22:41:38 GMT

wrote:
I think what he was trying to say was the cruise ship itself may be billing you

Public would not

(alternatively, the cruise ship may not recognize Public Mobile since the SIM self identifies as Telus and it may indeed be a bug)

How would they correlate a passenger with an IMSI?

Re: Cellular at sea

kav2001c — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 00:04:53 GMT

No need to

He signed a contract with cruise company, they have a record of his cell phone number

Quite easy to bill him after the fact (even if swapping SIM into other device, eg Tablet)

I've never used cell service on a cruise but I do know many will bill the client directly

wrote:

How would they correlate a passenger with an IMSI?

Re: Cellular at sea

sheytoon — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 01:45:53 GMT

That doesn't sound feasible to me. What if he lied and provided a fake number? What if his wife/kids brought their phones that the cruise ship wasn't aware of?

Unless there's some login portal (for WiFi -- not even for cellular), I don't see how it can be implemented. Maybe I'm just not understanding it correctly. Do you have an example of any of these cruise companies that directly bill cellular service?