Cellular at sea

[mimmo]

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.

[darlicious]

@jasonevansEnjoy your free CAS service unless you pay for it ahead of time it either doesn't work or its free....you will never ever get an after the fact bill from public mobile.

[sheytoon]

@jasonevans PM will never charge you for anything after the fact.

It's all prepaid.

[jasonevans]

CELLULAR AT SEA (CAS) is the uplink service only. The cruise lines have no participation in billing, service interruptions, connectibility or hookup. This is an agreement offered between your mobile company and CAS. TELUS has an agreement such an agreement. The perceived loophole or bug is the prepayment contract held by Public Mobile (PM) subscribers. 
We are currently aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean. We have purchased a prepaid 10 day roaming package from PM for those days we are in American ports of call. ($20 text talk and 250mg data) As mentioned by others cruising, when CAS is available we have full text and talk capability. However, having not reviewed the terms of our prepaid PM contract fully, and until we have, there is a reluctance of course to use the service. One doesn't want an unknown clause in the PM contract  rearing it's ugly head at the commencement of the next billing cycle bring home a very expensive roaming charge in addition to monthly costs.  
Would be nice to think TELUS/PM have just not developed a work around for this. I am certain there will be no announcement otherwise. The seed of doubt around the billing may be what they want at this time until they can solve the issue. We are all aware that Less for Less means exactly that. 

[AE_Collector]

I agree. The cruise line isn’t involved beyond providing the satellite link to land. Sure, a list of unbillable calls from PM or Telus could be sent to Cellular at sea and then forwarded to the cruise line to scour their customer records to see what cell numbers could be picked out of their records. Then the complaints and arguments would start when passengers are sent a bill some time later. From what I have seen cruising primarily on Princess, they go a long way to avoid annoying passengers as their are plenty of other cruise lines out there.

Telus is likely being billed in this case and like the old Telecom Canada who administered LD calls travelling on the networks of numerous Canadian Telcos, there is likely a way to drop or get credit back for unbillable calls. There is virtually no direct cost to providing an individual call once the system is in place. The high cost of the service is a function of installing all the equipment, numerous parties involved in sharing profits and a great profit overall. Thus, some unbillable calls are likely easier to just write off as long as it doesn’t become too high of a percentage of calls. I would think the most likely scenario going forward would be cellular at Sea finding a way with technology to block calls from unbillable users if there get to be too many of them. All just my random thoughts on the subject however!! Terry

[mimmo]

It all goes through the cell company. Cruise ship has nothing to do with billing for cell usage. Confirmed with the staff.

It's simply  a case of my provider billing me through my phone bill.  If I go to Italy I would get charged one rate and if I go to China I get billed a different rate. 

[sheytoon]

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?

[kav2001c]

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

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wrote:

 

How would they correlate a passenger with an IMSI?

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[sheytoon]

 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?

[closng]

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wrote: 

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

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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*

[mimmo]

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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)

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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? 

[kav2001c]

@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

[kav2001c]

@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)

[Luddite]

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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

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

[Anonymous]

@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.

[Acekiller]

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

[Mary_M · Accepted solution]

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

[mimmo]

@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?

[closng]

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!

[will13am]

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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

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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.

[mimmo]

@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

[Korth]

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".

[mimmo]

@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

[Korth]

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.

[makkahn28]

At least that sounds like a wonderful Bug.

Really wish Public can initiate TRUELY Global Roaming at some point