OOps! :blush: My mistake. When I made my booking (with Anek), I had visited also their website and could not even find a page in English (only in Danish) so I thought it was a Danish company! But you are right, it's Greek!

I guess that the automatic GPS switch is an optional which is offered by the company whose website I visited (which might not be the one which installed the system on the ships you boarded).

By the way didn't Costa Classica have a fire on board at the end of August? I guess they repared everything pretty fast...

Have a nice cruise!

other links about Oceancell.

1. English article: http://www.oceannavigator.com/article.php?a=1266

2. Report from Siminn: http://www.siminn.is/mm?object=11485

3. Info about the service (no extra charge I suppose) from Vodafone.gr: http://www.vodafone.gr/live1/page.jsp?pid=...vars=0000000000

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (vodafone.gr)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>SATELLITE ROAMING SERVICE - OCEANSELL

A new Satellite Roaming Service had been activated for all Vodafone subscribers. All Vodafone subscribers can use their mobile phone when traveling with ship from Greece to Italy, even in areas that no GSM coverage exist. Upon service activation the according sms message will be received ?Welcome to the Oceancell ? Siminn network. This satellite-based service allows to use your phone in high seas. Contact reception desk for information?. When using the service SIMINN logo will appear on their mobile screen. [/quote:06e5977389]

4. Info from T-Mobile.de (german): http://www.t-mobile.de/roaming/1,7307,12550-_,00.html

5. Info from Tim Italy (extracharge =6 - six! - euro for minute ... this is really CRAZY!) http://www.privati.tim.it/delivery/file/0,,1069,00.pdf
http://www.privati.tim.it/pr/pr_popup/0,,6282,00.html

Sec:

Yes, Costa Classica had a fire on board just 4 days before we were due to start our cruise. They repaired evrything really fast, because we looked for signs of the fire, and found absolutely nothing.

Andrea:

People in TIM are totally crazy. Who do they think will pay 6 euro/min? Well, maybe someone will, because lots of people don't know how much they pay. Today I have heard a TIM customer saying that roaming in Croatia has to be very expensive, he just spent 20 euros in one call. The fool did not know that he was connected to the ship's network, ad 2 euros/min.

What about Vodafone? Is there Vodafone service on some Greek ships?

No, Vodafone Greece simply wrote about Oceancell-Siminn service... and they don't seem to have a crazy extracharge for the service like Tim and polish networks :beer:

i had some rumors about the fact that Tim changed its tariff thanks to us :ranting2:

I don't understand - what tariff?

For incoming calls on OceanCell network :help:

from 0,30/0,40 to almost 7 euro minute! :sad:

OceanCell = Siminn of Iceland, to be sure?
And what they did is really horrible :ranting2: .

I must say I complained here a lot about rates of Polish ops in GSM on Ships roamings but none of them has such crazy rates.
Orange PL even decreased some of its on-Ships rates to compare with Idea times. Now incoming calls are for 5 PLN (about 1,3 EUR) and outgoing 15 PLN (about 3,9 EUR)/min.

yes :sad:

Also polish operators are crazy too...

Yes, as to GSM on Ships they really are :sad: .
However, so far none of them has reached 7 EUR/min level on incoming calls in any roaming.