<span style='color:red'>from other thread http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=676</span>

Also I read again the "Welcome" sms that I received on the ship... it was from OceanCell that it's using Siminn network :)

Then I found this interesting links about the partnership between SuperFast and Siminnn :beer:

http://www.mobitel.si/eng/SalesRange/GSMSu...rageonShips.asp (in English)

http://saunalahti.fi/gsm/roaming.html (in Finnish)

http://www.myphone.gr/forum/showthre...&postid=510884 (in Greek)

Nice u r back :D

How much did you pay for that Adriatico-Icelandic roaming?
I ask because it's a special roaming ("GSM-On-Ships") that includes using a satellite link between the ship and the land.
I checked roaming tables of Polish ops for Siminn "GSM on Ships"
Plus: N/A
Idea: incoming 13,70 PLN + rate Poland-Iceland, outgoing - 15,76 PLN, SMS 3,94 PLN
Era: incoming 16,91 PLN + rate Poland-Iceland, outgoing - 26,54 PLN, SMS 4,26 PLN.
All rates include comission of Polish ops and 22% VAT, 1 PLN = 0,25 EUR (moreless),

This is also the answer why Riiing doesn't roam Siminn on the Adriatic Sea - because of pricing it should be the Riiing zone at least 11 or 12, not zone 1 as "true" Iceland :D. BTW, Idea's site shows that the network code for Siminn on Adriatic ferries is "274 01 gos" - I think it could be considered from the technical point of view as a "fake MVNO" of 274 01 with (technically somehow justified) horrible pricing....

And one more thing - prepaids in Era and Idea (the latter not clealy stated however) have no roaming with Siminn "GSM on Ships"....

It?s got to be very expensive. Here in the USA, Cingular/Tmobile customers pay $4.99 to roam on ships. At least 2 cruise lines (Royal Carribean and Celebrity) are offering it at the moment.

Incoming calls with Wind was 0.35 ? / minute (zone 1), with Riiing free (zone 1 again :) )

I was using Siminn with the real nation code (274 01), not a fake for the satelllite system. So I paid my normal price for Iceland and not a special tariff for a satellite system (with the same trick you can use Riiing for free on Tim net of "Costa Crociere") :beer:

I think that it's great :)

P.S.: the interesting thing with Tim and "Costa Crociere" (and I think that Siminn and "Superfast" have the same thing like Cingular/Tmobile customers with "Royal Carribean" and "Celebrity"... B) ) is that only Tim customers have to pay a extracharge for using this satellite system (you can read http://www.privati.tim.it/pr/pr_dett...,,4_52,00.html for further details about that) :w00t:

Andrea, even if I have never been on board a ship with Siminn coverage, I don't understand how could it be that someone paid a lot for using Siminn on a ship, and you did pay normal Wind price for zone 1. How is it possible? Did you manually select the "right" (in terms of price) network? Did you receive both networks on the ship?

And how about TIM and Costa ships? Do they also use a different network code?

No, on the ship I had only 1 network (Siminn; 274 01 thanks to my Netmonitor on 6630 :) ) and I had automatically roaming.

I think that foreigner networks can't understand to be in a mixed satellite-gsm system and so you have the normal price as usual in roaming international.

For me it's strange that in Poland they thought a different price for "OceanCell" (this is name for the service of Siminn and Superfast), I suppose that a polish customer on a Superfast ship don't pay more that usually in Iceland. So I'm sure that if I'll use with a my NOT US sim card on the "Royal Caribbean" ship I won't pay more than using normally TMob/Cingular networks.

About Tim and Costa ships... no, they use the normal 222 01 but they have a special price only for Tim customers (it's incredibile I know, but a international roamer using "Tim on the ship" will pay less than a Tim customer) because I think that their billing service can't do more with int.l roamers... :construction:

That's really a great behaviour. Mobile operators happily rip off their own customers while offering a good price to other networks customers.

Hmm, I thought that they could because "on ships" networks are "fake MVNO" but if they aren't ...

I haven't tried this roaming by myself (and I don't anyone in Poland who has) - just quoted info from roaming tables. But what you say sounds reasonable.


Quite possible.

And can Wind and Voda Italy roam on TIM on the ship?

And as to GSM-on-Ships roamings...

In Poland, Idea-Orange-To-Be offers the largest choice of these king of roamings. The others than Simin are:
P&T Luxembourg - "Val de Loire" ship (France-Ireland line(?), not mentioned on the Idea site) - fees the same as Siminn of Superfast ferries
TIM Costa Crocere - incoming 14,68 PLN + rate Poland-Italy, outgoing 16,88 PLN, SMS 1,41 PLN.

The latest case is the most interesting. It's Marinetime Communications Partner - MCP. It uses +47 country code (Norway) but its network is 901 12 (virtual country? - Thuraya is 901 05). In the Idea roaming list it's the cheapest one 6,19 PLN/min + 0,68 setup fee, SMS 3,38 PLN, and what is most interesting, incoming calls are charged at 8,38 PLN/min (Poland-rest of the world rate) without operator extra's incoming charge,

No. Wind, Voda and H3G can't roam on Tim GSM on the Ship... maybe it's better :P

Really interesting... i'd like to have a complete list about "gsm on the ship" services in the world but i think it will be impossible :help:

And it's another reason to buy Riiing :)


Why impossible? It requires "only" reviewing www infos about roaming agreements of all ops in the world :D. Anyway, I think that should be some info on gsmworld.com...

Well. I have just read TIM's web site, and found that they clearly state that their customers pay more (2 Euro/min for both incoming and outgoing calls) than the normal TIM home rate, but the site does not state anything about non-TIM customers.

It's quite obvious that TIM does not want customers from other italian networks, because they want people to buy a TIM sim (in Italy, netwrok operators are fighting each other to get largest number of customers, taking them away from the others), so they'll never offer a service to other italian networks customers, even with high prices.

What is less obvious is why do Polish operators have special (high) tariffs for TIM's GSM on ship service, while it seems that other (non Italian) operators don't, and make customers pay the normal roaming fee as if they where roaming on TIM in Italy.

I suppose that this means that there is a way for operators to distinguish between calls made roaming on "normal" GSM service offered by TIM and the "special" on ship service, and as the service will become more popular, and more ships will offer it, more operators will start billing higher rates for the service like Polish operators do. I don't think Riiing will keep the fees low as they are now. :( Maybe they'll introduce a new "zone", just for on-ship roaming, with prices so high that it'll be better to buy a SAT phone.

Is there no additional reason - forbidden national roaming? After all I think that "GSM on Ships" service is so special that TIM could "let in" other Italian networks....



Once again, I'm not 100% sure that Polish operators really charge so rates on ships, I only quote what they display on their websites. But, disregarding the fact that the rates quoted by me are really sick, I think that they should be higher than those for "land GSM" and I'm still very surprised why non-Polish roaming partners of "GSM on Ships" services don't charge higher that kind of roaming....


Hmm, in many cases it's cheaper use to a sat phone instead of roaming. But even if sat phones were as cheap as standard GSM phones with similar features are, they have one important disadvantage - they work only outdoor. That's why IMHO "GSM on Ships" services really make sense...

Maybe it souds like a strange behaviour to you, but here in Italy operators just want to get new customers, and want other operators to lose them. So they offer incredible (or at least they seem to be so) offers, like "600 euros free if you make a number portability to Wind" or "9000 euros free if you make a number poratability to 3 ITA". In such a sick market, TIM wants people to port their number to TIM, and in fact it offers NP service directly on board Costa ships!


To be honest, TIM offers quite a reasonable price to its own customers, at 2 euros/min. This is really a lot more reasonable than Polish prices. Anyway, you should also consider that TIM offers this price to its own customers, not roaming ones. So, if roaming in itself is a rip-off, it'easy to understand why roaming on a ship is a "double super" rip-off.

About prices on site and real billing prices, I suppose that if they have put such high prices on their site, is because they want people to pay such prices, not just to scare them, don't you think? :)

Maybe they can't now, but they WILL make you pay such prices. And I don't think that the other operators will keep the current low prices. When GSM operators smell money, they usually jump on the prey as fast as they can.

I understand, but why do you call this situation sick? Are there real no advantages to customers?


Polish operators in postpaid roaming use the following pricing policy. They take the fee charged by the foreign operator, add 15% of their comission, and to all that they add 22% VAT (and exchange rates of foreign currencies are not shown to the public :P). So, if TIM charges Polish ops so high, all what they can do is to decrease their comission or to renegotiate the roaming agreement with TIM.


Sure they want customers to pay. But if anyone sees such crazy prices, the he/she will just get _scared_ and turn off the phone before boarding the ship and the op will earn nothing :D!. I wrote this sentence because of another reason - websites of Polish ops contain a lot of ancient or false info and that might be the case :).

Not only GSM ops, each business does - we must live with it just like with just with the laws of physics :D.

Italian customers have only a big confusion and not so good prices... our tariff plans are only growing and returning with old billing 60/60 or 30/30 :(

Also did you find something about other GSM on the ship services? Gsmworld.com maybe doesn't know this thing...

I am very sorry becuase of that? Any secret price agreement?

Sorry, I had no time. But MCP previously mentioned by me looks interesting because it seems to be the only (known to me) operator which specializes in such "on ship" services.

And, just for fun, I googled "gsm on ship" and:
http://www.mobitel.si/slo/Ponudba/GSMnaroc...rater.asp?id=35

So it's not true that only Polish ops charge extra for TIM "on ship" roaming....

Seems impossible to me that foreign operators are deliberately charged less... I think it's just a problem of disorganized inter-operators agreements (e.g. Riiing is not aware of the difference between Tim inlands and Tim onboard), but that's just my impression.

I found some information on how Gsm onboard ships works on
http://www.thedigitalship.com/powerpoints/...0altobridge.pdf.
It mentions that part of the price charged goes directly to the ship (who installed the equipment onboard...)

I believe that, of course, you might have already seen
http://www.geolink.com/oceancell.htm (quoting superferries - which, by the way, is not a greek company!).

Interesting: my understanding is that the ship network gets disconnected automatically, when reaching the costline (to avoid people inland to roam on the ship) through GPS... Amazing, isn't it?

I suppose that... :ranting2:

Maybe in the future they'll change it, but actually we don't have any difference about that :whistle:

You found 2 really interesting links :beer:

Also it's false that GSM on the ship is disconnected automatically... maybe they DON'T want to do it :unsure: in fact it's very easy to find the signal of SIMINN if you are close to the ship in Ancona, Patra and Igoumenitsa... :P

PS: about Superfast http://superfast.com/Adriatic/Englis...v/aen_info.asp and http://superfast.com/Adriatic/Englis.../aen_fleet.asp B)

As I was writing in another thread, I am currently onboard Costa Classica cruising along Greece, and I have TIM on board coverage (nice surprise, because I thought that Costa Classica did not have this facility), which i use with my Riiing sim at "normal" inalnd Italian prices, in zone 1. I just laugh at my friends that spend 2 euros/min both for calling ad receiving with TIM sim cards!

I'll read all of the interesting articles linked to this thread when I'll get home.

PS: It seems that on board coverage is switched on and off manually, because sometimes they seem to forget to switch it on or off, and do it late.

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.

7 ? / minute is really crazy

Another GSM-on-ship operator is the Norwegian operator MCP, MCP Maritime Communications Partner AS, MCC+MNC = 901 12
For the list of served ships see http://www.mcpinc.biz/coverage.php

I know 901 is not the correct MCC for Norway, but this company operates only onboard ships, hence the use of a different MCC is probably set to prevent confusion in billing systems like the ones AndreA experienced.

If I read the tariffs correctly, Vodafone customers pay 2euro/min outgoing calls, 1euro/min incoming calls (which is about twice the usual tariff for roaming in Norway)