Use of phone out of the country

Thus spake (Dennis P. Harris) :

On Tue, 07 Mar 2006 19:14:48 GMT in rec.travel.cruises, "Rick"
wrote:

I have Cingular wireless coverage on the family plan. We are on the plan
that allows the four of us to pool our minutes and we don't pay a minutes
charge unless we go over 1000 minutes per month. Next month we will be on a
one week cruise to the Caribbean, and I have the following questions:

ASK CINGULAR, GOOBER. DUH.

Rick, meet our hopeless troll.


--
dillon

Could have been is in the past
Could be is in the future
There is only the now

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

I'm guessing that charge can be avoided by forwarding all incoming calls to
voicemail (so there's no ringing on roaming). Then the only charge would be
for checking voicemail, which can be done with a discount calling card.
Anyone know for sure?

In on Wed, 8 Mar 2006 07:28:41
-0800, "M.Paul" wrote:

If I am understanding the information correctly on the Cingular website, you
will be charged for roaming if an incoming call goes to voicemail - even if
no message is left. It's in the fine print.

"Rick" wrote in message
.net...
I have Cingular wireless coverage on the family plan. We are on the plan
that allows the four of us to pool our minutes and we don't pay a minutes
charge unless we go over 1000 minutes per month. Next month we will be on
a
one week cruise to the Caribbean, and I have the following questions:

1). I realize that when we are on the ship, we will not have phone
service,
so I presume that anyone calling us at that time will simply get our voice
mail and we will not be charged for those calls. Is that a correct
assumption?

2) Once we are in port, say in Jamaica or Cozumel, will calls from the US
make it to my phone? I have a Samsung x427m (GPRS).

3) If I answer the phone from Jamaica or Cozumel and the call is from the
US, what is the approximate charge per minute?. What happens if I ignore
or
reject the call and it rolls over to my voice mail? Will I be charged for
that call if a person leaves a message?

4) Finally, if I call my voice mail to retrieve a voice mail message
while
in Cozumel or Jamaica, will I be charged just as though I were making a
call
back to the States?




--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ

I have Cingular also and I find the roaming charges just to high, but what I
use is Text Messages. It only costs 10c per messages send and also
received. I used it for the first time last year and those where the only
charges that I ever had to pay.
Used it again two weeks ago from Costa Maya and also from Panama.
Also I was for a while in Europe last summer and that was the way I stayed
in contact with my family back in USA. I just switched my phone on once a
day, checked the Text messages and replied to them if I wanted to.
One of my daughters is in Belize right now, she spends 10 days there and
when she has a signal she sends me a messages. So usually after a vacation,
my bill is maybe $2 higher than normal.
Anita

I have Cingular wireless coverage on the family plan. We are on the plan
that allows the four of us to pool our minutes and we don't pay a minutes
charge unless we go over 1000 minutes per month. Next month we will be
on a
one week cruise to the Caribbean, and I have the following questions:

DO NOT USE YOUR CELL PHONE, and I repeat, DO NOT USE YOUR CELL PHONE. The
best you will get is a really bad connection and a very very large phone
bill. Only use a phone if absolutely necessary. You will be on a cruise, it
will be easy to not think of using the phone.

I would also use an international calling card plan that works in other
countries, like www.onesuite, when you are docked. I use OneSuite when I am
overseas and have not run into any problems or extra service fees.
CT

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In t on Tue, 07 Mar 2006
19:14:48 GMT, "Rick" wrote:

1). I realize that when we are on the ship, ...

If you want to stay in touch when at sea, consider renting an Iridium
satellite phone. Prepaid cards can bring the air time down to about
$1/minute, which may well be cheaper than any other option.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ

John Navas wrote:

If you want to stay in touch when at sea, consider renting an Iridium
satellite phone. Prepaid cards can bring the air time down to about
$1/minute, which may well be cheaper than any other option.

My husband rented an Iridium satellite phone for a two-week cruise in
the Caribbean. To say he was deeply disappointed is an understatement.
When we were at sea, we would go up on the top deck, point the antenna
at the sky and get NOTHING. No connection. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

On Antigua, we had marginally better results. We found one spot on the
dock where we could actually make a phone call, but the sound quality
was so poor that my husband terminated the call quite rapidly.

One day on that cruise, we happened to eat lunch with two other couples.
The husbands were both still working and both had brought satellite
phones along with them, too. Their experience was identical to ours. If
you can't get a clear shot at the satellite in the middle of the
Caribbean, where can you get a clear shot?

We've had equally disappointing experiences with rented international
cell phones with the appropriate SIM card. Our best results staying in
touch by phone have been in Italy because we bought an Italian phone.
Generally, we stay in touch via the internet either in internet cafes or
in the internet room of a cruise ship.

Karen Selwyn

Karen Selwyn wrote in news:1_VPf.116678
$QW2.75542@dukeread08:

John Navas wrote:

If you want to stay in touch when at sea, consider renting an Iridium
satellite phone. Prepaid cards can bring the air time down to about
$1/minute, which may well be cheaper than any other option.

My husband rented an Iridium satellite phone for a two-week cruise in
the Caribbean. To say he was deeply disappointed is an understatement.
When we were at sea, we would go up on the top deck, point the antenna
at the sky and get NOTHING. No connection. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

On Antigua, we had marginally better results. We found one spot on the
dock where we could actually make a phone call, but the sound quality
was so poor that my husband terminated the call quite rapidly.

One day on that cruise, we happened to eat lunch with two other
couples.
The husbands were both still working and both had brought satellite
phones along with them, too. Their experience was identical to ours.
If
you can't get a clear shot at the satellite in the middle of the
Caribbean, where can you get a clear shot?

We've had equally disappointing experiences with rented international
cell phones with the appropriate SIM card. Our best results staying in
touch by phone have been in Italy because we bought an Italian phone.
Generally, we stay in touch via the internet either in internet cafes
or
in the internet room of a cruise ship.

Karen Selwyn



Sorry you had trouble withthe Iridium, I have not had good luck in the
Caribbean, but in Europe my phone (I have used a Motorola V505 and an
NEC 515 my daughter regularly uses her Motorola V180) has worked without
problems whether with my ATT sim or any of three others that we from
time to time employ. (Italian French and international)
--
Joseph Coulter
Cruises and Vacations
http://www.josephcoulter.com/

d[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In 1_VPf.116678$QW2.75542@dukeread08 on Thu, 09 Mar 2006 08:24:44 -0500,
Karen Selwyn wrote:

John Navas wrote:

If you want to stay in touch when at sea, consider renting an Iridium
satellite phone. Prepaid cards can bring the air time down to about
$1/minute, which may well be cheaper than any other option.

My husband rented an Iridium satellite phone for a two-week cruise in
the Caribbean. To say he was deeply disappointed is an understatement.
When we were at sea, we would go up on the top deck, point the antenna
at the sky and get NOTHING. No connection. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

You may have gotten a bad phone. My own experience with Iridium at sea (e.g.,
between California and Hawaii) has been very good.

We've had equally disappointing experiences with rented international
cell phones with the appropriate SIM card. Our best results staying in
touch by phone have been in Italy because we bought an Italian phone.

You need a quad band phone for best results. Again, my own experience with
quad band international phones has been very good.

Generally, we stay in touch via the internet either in internet cafes or
in the internet room of a cruise ship.

That certainly has its place, but isn't always practical.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ

John Navas wrote:



You may have gotten a bad phone. My own experience with Iridium at sea (e.g.,
between California and Hawaii) has been very good.

Clearly that's a possibility. However, you snipped the part in the
original message that explained that two strangers who had brought
satellite phones had equally disappointing results. When the number
jumps to three, I think pattern rather than bad phone.

You need a quad band phone for best results. Again, my own experience with
quad band international phones has been very good.

I can't remember the litany of problems we've had with quad band
international phones. Things were going just splendidly with the quad
band phone we took to China until the power on/off button got stuck in
the down position.

Karen Selwyn

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In ng0Qf.116697$QW2.7397@dukeread08 on Thu, 09 Mar 2006 15:33:54 -0500,
Karen Selwyn wrote:

John Navas wrote:

You may have gotten a bad phone. My own experience with Iridium at sea (e.g.,
between California and Hawaii) has been very good.

Clearly that's a possibility. However, you snipped the part in the
original message that explained that two strangers who had brought
satellite phones had equally disappointing results. When the number
jumps to three, I think pattern rather than bad phone.

Depends on which phones. Old Iridium phones, many of which are still being
rented, aren't as good as newer models.

You need a quad band phone for best results. Again, my own experience with
quad band international phones has been very good.

I can't remember the litany of problems we've had with quad band
international phones. Things were going just splendidly with the quad
band phone we took to China until the power on/off button got stuck in
the down position.

That's hardly a valid indictment of quad band phones. The better ones are
very good indeed, including the V551/V557 and V3.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ