Does Anyone Know the REAL Roaming Costs Incurred by Carriers?

[snidely]

Originally Posted by FBlack_111

Want to hear a huge rip off by T-Mobile? Try making a call from a cruise ship. T-Mobile charges $4.99 a minute. Verizon and Att charge $2.49. This is no bargain either, but a whole lot less than T-Mobile. Don't use your International SIM either on a cruise ship. It costs more than Verizon and ATT, but less than T-Mobile.

Hate to sound as an apologist for the cell carriers -but ships use satellites for internet. That is very expensive. The sat. internet providers charge by the mb. I assume that cell phone services on ship connect the same way.
OTH, there is no excuse for T-M to charge double what everyone else charges.

BTW, maybe it would pay to rent a sat. phone. Think calls are $1 to $1.50/min. Don't know what the rental cost would be.

...mike

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by snidely

Hate to sound as an apologist for the cell carriers -but ships use satellites for internet. That is very expensive. The sat. internet providers charge by the mb. I assume that cell phone services on ship connect the same way.

Not all that expensive. Yes, calls via INMARSAT are expensive but the way the cruise ships are set up is that they have a high bandwidth, full-time satellite connection. This serves all their data needs and most of their ship-to-shore communications needs. Most crew-calling shipboard solutions run about $1-$1.50/min. On US Navy ships you will often find a phone for the sailors personal use. They buy prepaid cards in the ships store for about $1/min, as I recall. So, roaming at $2.50/min is expensive. $4.50/min is just obscene. Being charged that price anywhere is obscene. OTOH, receiving a SMS and sending via FishText or smsBug is a good deal. You can stay in touch with home 24/7 for almost nothing.