Cingular Maritime and United Mobile?

[kupe]

Hey gang-

We will be cruising aboard a Celebrity ship later this year in Chile and Argentina. They claim to have "Cingular Wireless Maritime Service" aboard. This is what they say:

Cingular Wireless Maritime Service will be available for use when the ship is in international waters. When you are at sea, you will know you can use Cingular Wireless Maritime Service when your mobile display indicates that you are roaming on "AT&T Wireless". Charges will be conveniently billed to you by your home network.

For questions about your service or about billing, please contact your home network customer service.

So, my question is, when using this service with a United Mobile phone, what rate would apply? Would UM see this as a call originating in the US and bill accordingly (ouch!). Or would some other rate apply? I've seen threads with outrageous fees for Maritime service, but how would they apply that to a prepaid like UM? For that matter, would a UM phone even be able to roam on that network? Anyone tried this service?

Thanks!

Kupe

[PhotoJim]

These maritime services have a different network ID and won't work automatically just because you can use your phone in the US.

The rates assuredly will be higher. Even Cingular subscribers pay dollars per minute to use these cell sites.

As to whether United Mobile roams on them or not, I can only speculate.

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by PhotoJim

These maritime services have a different network ID and won't work automatically just because you can use your phone in the US.

The rates assuredly will be higher. Even Cingular subscribers pay dollars per minute to use these cell sites.

As to whether United Mobile roams on them or not, I can only speculate.

Basically you're right. GSM-on-Ships roaming services are usually very expensive to use since they include satellite links. However, there were reports that UM roams on TIM GSM-on-Ships service at the same rate as on Italian land. This doesn't have to be true for other services of that type, however. I suppose that since there are no speficified rates for using UM with
GSM-on-Ships roamings, then either they are charged at "land rates" of the service providers or the roaming isn't available at all. Of course, there also may be an "undefined tariff status" as in case of UM roaming in Japan.

[AndreA]

Originally Posted by Przemolog

However, there were reports that UM roams on TIM GSM-on-Ships service at the same rate as on Italian land. This doesn't have to be true for other services of that type, however. I suppose that since there are no speficified rates for using UM with
GSM-on-Ships roamings, then either they are charged at "land rates" of the service providers or the roaming isn't available at all. Of course, there also may be an "undefined tariff status" as in case of UM roaming in Japan.

Well, I had the usual tariff plan (free incoming calls ) with my UM simcard on SuperFast Ferries too (ISIMINN, Iceland maritime network). Now I'm curious to know their billing on other gsm maritime networks

[AndreA]

Well, maybe I solved the mystery

I was looking aboute maritime services and their network. If you check the list of MCC (Mobile Country Code) you can note that only few maritime networks are using a Satellite code (MCC 901):

Inmarsat Ltd.	901 11
Maritime Communications Partner AS (link)	901 12
Global Networks, Inc.	901 13
Telenor	901 14
Jersey Telecom (link)	901 17
Cingular Wireless (link)	901 18
Vodafone Malta Maritime	901 19

Other networks as Isiminn or Tim on board also are using the usual national codes and so United Mobile (and others) can't know the different way of system using the usual tariffation plan. So if you roam on Tim or Isiminn maybe you'll have your usual roaming charges, but when you roam on the code 901 (it's a satellite code, pay attention!) you'll have the extrasurchage. What do you think? Am I wronging?