mobile phones charges when connected to the "SHIP" network

[minikiss]

Bit of a long shot but M&FIL are on the Star at the moment and Mom's a bit new to the using a mobile phone abroad. Long story short it seems she made a call to us and was still connect to the ships maritime network and not the one in Italy.

We did warn her to be careful today as while in Kotor (outside the EU) she would be charged to use the phone, but the rest of time she should be ok as the others are covered but EU roaming.

Oh we are from the UK and her provider gives her free minutes and that goes for EU Roaming to.

But as I said she made a call and did not see till it was to late that she was connected to the ship not a land network. As soon as realised she went to the desk to see if they give her an idea of cost but they were not helpful and just told her to contact her phone provider.

 

So i'm wondering if anyone on here has in the past made the same mistake and what sort of costs they were charged.

 

as I said a long shot.......

[KeithJenner]

Does the provider have the ability to check charges to date via an app or something? That would probably be the best way of finding out the cost. Or maybe giving them a call to find out.

 

The ship won't be able to help, because the charge will be made by the mobile provider rather than the ship itself. The rate will be dependent on their charges and the package etc.

[BaWBarmy]

It will be dependant on the length of the call. I was on the Jade recently and accidentally used 201 bytes of data on the Maritime (Ship) network. My provider (EE) is charging me £1.21 for that.

 

Next time she hits shore tell her to check her app, if she has one, it will tell her there, alternatively she can log in to her account using the browser on the phone, if she has that type of phone. As long as she is ashore and receiving a local network signal then she will be OK as all roaming charges in the EU have been cancelled since 15th June.

[KeithJenner]

I just did a little bit of google work to try to get an idea. Obviously it depends on the provider, but most seem to be around £1.50 per minute. The one that stood out was three which states £3 per minute.

[garycarla]

WARNING WARNING

 

Yes, she will pay for the call by the minute.

 

The bigger problem is data. I hope she has cellular data turned off, otherwise the phone will be running stuff in the background and sucking up data. If she can not figure that out, turn the phone off. It would be worth paying for a text or short phone call to call her right now to make sure.

[minikiss]

Thanks guys for all the advice.

 

She's got what I call a granny phone, big buttons and she can only make phone calls and text and send the odd picture. I doubt she knows how to use data from it, I don't think it can be connected to wifi.......

 

So I doubt she can access an app from it to see her balance.

She doesn't need to when at home as Talktalk gave us free calls and text for as long as she has their land line and internet.

 

I'm just hoping she was only talking to my DH for a matter of minutes.

At first she said she couldn't make calls from it as every time she dialled she said it was giving her an engaged tone. Turns out she hadn't worked out she needed to put 00 in front of the 44.....

once she figured that she thought great i'll call home and didn't check what network she was connected to.

Well what ever the cost it's a lesson learnt and she won't do it again.

 

When ever we go away we only turn them on in port or when we know we are close to land. That way we are sure it a land connection not a ship one.

She didn't know to do that as the last time she sailed she didn't use her phone.

 

again thanks

[BirdTravels]

So, it is simple, if the ship is not at a port, mom should not use her phone. The ship is very good about turning off their cell tower once they are in range of land-based cell towers.

 

The charges are from your mobile phone company. The ship does not charge you. So, the guest services personnel on the ship would have no idea how much your mom was charged. Most US carriers charge $3 per minute.