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Originally Posted by Kurgan
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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.
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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....
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Originally Posted by Kurgan
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.
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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....
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Originally Posted by Kurgan
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. |
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...