Warning...accidental Brittany Ferry maritime mobile connection!! (1 Viewer)

BeeSea

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As we sail across the Bay of Biscay this morning on the Baine de Siene, I thought I'd warn ya'll that to avoid eye watering connection charges one must place one's phone in "Flight Mode" and use the free onboard WiFi only (albeit dreadful quality). My wife and I have already racked up £50 odd on data charges on our iPhones that are on the Three Mobile "Feel at Home" deal while using the ship's WiFi. I can only surmise that during WiFi drop outs/re-loggins we've accidentally connected to the ships satellite service (Skybridge)!!! :-(

I'll be having a pleading call to Three this afternoon when we get to Bilbao to reverse the charges to allow us to continue on the "Feel at Home" deal while we tour Spain and Portugal for two months! It's not Three's fault really. I'll lobby Brittany Ferrys, but it will fall on deaf ears....

See BBC
 

funflair

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My guess is your "feel st home" is still OK you just have £50 extra on your bill when you get home,

Martin
 

eddie

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I think that this is the new "con"

We got caught at Christmas. Now having "Three" Unlimited data and "Feel at home" contracts we didn't bother turning off our phones or tablets when crossing. Both of us and our mates we were traveling with got clobbered

They were with Vodafone who said "On this occasion we will waive the charges"

Three didn't give a toss!

So whilst we "think" that the English channel is either in England or France territorial waters, the phone companies don't and rack up International charges

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sallylillian

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Had the same issue earlier this month, for reasons I do not understand we both had our phones set to roaming data, I have unlimited, Sally has 2gb limit. Just as we were arriving she gets text saying you have used £26 of data. Not touched the phone, me nothing. In about 20 trips never had this before. So the question is it BF or 3?
 
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BeeSea

BeeSea

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The buck stops with BF with this sallylillian. My wife "used" 1.49Mb (£8.98) and I "used" 6.42 Mb (£38.56) reports Three. It could ONLY have been during free ship WiFi dropouts and re-connects. We ALWAYS used the free WiFi only and are (we thought) very seasoned IT travelers...

We're 2 hours out of Bilboa and I have a chat with the onboard manager in half an hour to get some intel...

Posted on the free onboard WiFi...I hope ;-)

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sallylillian

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I would think so as Eddie said that they had the issue with both Vodafone and Three, so common denominator is BF. Trying to boost their revenue! While you're with the manager can you ask him for my £26?
 
Dec 28, 2015
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Yes it is the answer. Three told me that their dongle just logs on to the signal . But if BF have a premium rate, my argument is that the dongle shouldn't be able to login. Whatever, three split the bill with us. Not satisfactory but better than nothing

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Oct 29, 2008
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AFAIK its not the ships wifi its the ships GSM data connection. You cant be charged for wifi unless you log in and set it up.
 
Aug 18, 2014
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Even with just a phone if you make a call when crossing the channel it can pick up the 'maritime' channel @£1.50/minute. Nephew warned me about using phone whilst crossing ,years ago.

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BeeSea

BeeSea

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To end the story, the lovely people at Three reversed the charges on both our phones as a one off gesture (bless their cotton socks):)
 
Feb 10, 2013
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Happened to me in March got in touch with 3 and had them cancel the charge. Santander to Plymouth.

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DBK

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I think the problem is the phone signal you pick up on the ship is recognised by your network provider as something exotic and outside the normal coverage area. Specifically it isn't seen as being in Europe.
As I understand it the ship has a satellite link which it rebroadcasts within the ship.
I've been caught out by it but only momentarily as I got a text warning of out of area charges. That was with O2.
 
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The ships use Inmarsat which used to be horrendously expensive, it's only extraordinarily expensive now. Phone calls were £5/min a few years ago.
 

pilatesinavan

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Hi

My wife got caught on the Roscoff to Rosslare crossing. Eur14.39/min to call, eur4.80/min to receive and eur3.20 to send a text. She was on just 2mins 6secs and it cost over eur30.
Sick when she found out. Still have the text to remind us.
Thought we were still in Europe but no, maratime price.

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jumar

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I got caught also, knocked up about £32 without knowing. Made a few calls to Vodafone UK...they refunded me the total bill as a gesture of good will, well that's after I told them to cancel my contract.
 
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The ships use Inmarsat which used to be horrendously expensive, it's only extraordinarily expensive now. Phone calls were £5/min a few years ago.

Will seems to be the only one that has explained that at sea, so where one is out of range of 'line-of-sight' terrestial antennae used by the networks, the only available link is via satellites, which are obviously a lot more expensive to put into commission.

I am surprised more people have not realised.

Geoff
 
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2657

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There is actually a warning, certainly about data roaming, in the bumf given to you on checking in.

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Feb 9, 2008
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I just checked on the Inmarsat website, data currently costs $5.10/ Mb, yes, per Mb! It's not the ferry company ripping you off, that's what they pay.
 

Jands

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Need to look at what your mobile connects to before using it.
When up in the western fells in Cumbria mine constantly locked onto the Isle of Man system and the expense of using it, ok didn't make calls but sometimes received them.
On Rhodes this summer my wife racked up a £15 bill as her mobile picked up signal from Turkey.
Modern mobile systems don't have a great range so once out of range will pick up any signal that's available regardless of cost and suitability.
 

Puddleduck

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When we were in parts of NI we connected to Eire systems. Obviously that didn't matter cost wise but it was a bit disconcerting the first time it happened.

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Steve N Tracy

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We always turn the phones to flight mode as soon as the ferry leaves the harbour, we did get caught out a few years ago while visiting Sampfire Ho at Dover a few years ago though the phones connected to French telephone systems so we got billed for texts and calls made while there.
 
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One of the ways of avoiding unexpected surprises like this (other than switching your phone off or into flight mode) is to set your phone to manual network selection rather than automatic. Once out of range of your current network provider it won't connect again until you manually select another. You should still be able to make an emergency 112 call though. We tend to do this even when in France as some of the networks gives better service than the one that our three phone will automatically connect to.
 

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