Is anyone else not happy with the speed of the high speed data pass?

I used the data pass when i first visited Oslo, it was fantastic roaming on Telenor getting 5-15mbps.

Then i roamed in S. Korea on SKT and Olleh, Mexico on Movistar, Hong Kong on 3 or Smartone, Japan on Docomo & Softbank.

Excluding Norway, all the other carriers, the cellular signal dropped constantly, and i never got more than 1mbps.

I have the iphone 6 which supports all the GSM, HSPA ,and LTE bannds of the above mentioned carriers.

Anyone else had this issue?

I purchased a one week pass in Sri Lanka and experienced an improvement from "virtually unusable" to "barely usable". It was good enough, just, to access email. It wasn't fast enough to load maps and navigate. This was in reasonably well populated areas between Kandy and Colombo and between Colombo, Negombo and the airport.

The only fallacy in this logic is whether there is reliable or fast enough mobile data at the port where the ship docks.

Should be the case at most big ports.

If the cruise companies want to broaden their customer base, they should find a way to get satellite Internet to their passengers gratis when away from ports.

Why would they want to kill one of their huge cash cows? Doing so would hurt them in several ways:

1. The obvious loss of revenue.

2. More complaints from the business travellers who actually NEED to link and find it unusably slow (it'd get far worse if it was included). Thus, business travellers avoiding cruises.

They have been offering a share satellite service for a fee since around 2007 or 2008. I tink the service provider is MTS and you can see their dome among the radars, antenna and other telcom, It is not fast and expensive. Generally it is for emergency contact.

For those who needs to be in contact and needs internet connection 24/7 anywhere on earth there are personal satellite connections that one can subscribe to for a week or a long term lease. 89USD/month for the "modem" lease on a three year contract plus usage. For heavy users this is a better product. I have a relative who has this due to his consultation work locations and his love to travel.

Premise is that free or cheap Internet is expected by most travelers on land, or basically all the holiday alternatives to cruises.

So it would make more people consider and signup.

Only if the cruise lines have empty cabins to fill; and base on my cruise experience and observation that is not the case.

Cruise ships are full of cruisers who wants to be disconnected.

Coverage working in Romania as well. I roamed via TELECOM.RO trouble free.

Older 3G Phone With Lots of Bands for Europe?
 

The newer iPhones and iPads have radios that cover many data bands, and therefore will work almost anywhere. For example, Apple’s iPhone 6 (Models A1549 and A1586) and iPhone 6 Plus (Models A1522 and A1524) both support:

• four-band GSM
• five-band CDMA2000
• five-band UMTS (with HSPA+42 support), and
• sixteen LTE FDD bands (with support for up to 150Mbps of download speeds).

Wow, 30 bands in all!

I need data (3G is OK, EDGE is probably OK) for my upcoming vacation, but only for 12 days. Can anyone suggest a tetherable older-model phone, probably available used on eBay, that would cover a lot of bands and therefore likely work with T-Mobile's Simple Choice plan in a variety of European nations?

Thank you.

I think iPhone 5S would also have a lot of bands, not as many as the 6 but most of the European ones.

The iPhone 5 may or may not have the same set of bands.

The iPad mini 2 (first with Retina display) also supports all the European bands.

iPhone 5 is the oldest, followed by iPad mini 2 and then iPhone 5S. So used prices may go in that order, from low to high.


BTW, I've used the iPad mini 2 since last April, in France, Italy, Amsterdam, Vienna and Prague, all able to tether, including using the T-Mobile Simple Choice data-only plan for $10 a month.

But tethering is dependent on the carrier. T-Mobile allows it for international data roaming and local SIMs in different countries may or may not allow it for their prepaid bundles.

I saw a business traveler chatting on his sat phone from an aft cabin on a transatlantic. Where there's a will...

RCCL seems to have enough input and data to indicate there are plenty of cruisers who want more connectivity and built it into their two newest ships.

Current satellite internet is expensive for the cruise line, even with equipment upgrades. It would make sense, to me, to invest more telco infrastructure at the Caribbean and Alaskan ports which can withstand the surge connectivity during sailaway for a 2-4 year outlook while working with Satellite providers and onboard caching. Especially on the islands with undersea cables http://www.submarinecablemap.com/ which probably lack island network distribution infrastructure or are held to hostage telco markets. RCCL's also probably doing some clever things with Hulu and Netflix on Anthem and Quantum. http://www.royalcaribbean.com/quantu...smart-connect/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/cruise...rnet/22752833/

@Middle_Seat - If you'd prefer android, there's several which are on sale. Amazon Fire, HTC M7 as mentioned here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...d-i-get-2.html Or if you just want 3G, Moto G or E.

I am in Cambodia now and data roaming on Tmobile works fine. Throttled, of course, but working consistently.

Do you mind stating which network so we can add it to the FAQ?

Q: what's your budget for one? I have an older, unlocked Motorola Atrix 4G (AT&T) on a custom Kitkat 4.4 ROM and it has 2100 band for 3G (along with 850/1900) - brand new & unlocked on #Bay going for around $100 shipped, used it as a backup but 4" screen might be small for some. Out of the box, perhaps an unlocked Motorola E, going for $85 shipped on #Bay (screen is slightly bigger @4.3") and access 850, 900, 1900 an 2100 band for 3G data. SIL Is using it on AT&T postpaid @ home and it was on T-Mo 4G-LTE plan before. Boxed for Cricket (MNVO) Sim unlocked but bootloader is locked so no root or custom Rom. Apps - minimal bloatware that can be uninstalled easily and upgraded to 4.2.2.
Both of these will tether & has build-in WiFi hotspot functionality, I've since retired my older HTC smartphones (1 transferred & 1 kept for emergencies) as Rom support is horrible. With the newer 4G devices, I wouldn't go above my upper limit of $100 to $125 for devices on eBay.