Update on my Android hotspot on a cruise ship WiFi.

I’m now on an MSC ship that sailed from Miami, and their system is very restrictive. An unlimited package only allows for 1 device to be registered. It CANNOT be user switched to another device according to the web café staff. Login is quite convoluted also with on screen contradictions like “Enter birth date mm/dd/yyyy, then literally 1 line down, “Error: enter birth date as dd/mm/yyyy. To add insult to injury, mine is 10/10, so either way it should have registered properly.

Fortunately as hoped, using my Moto Edge 2022 which will pass through WiFi, solved the multiple device issue. I am on my second day and will update any changes, issues or impressions as they occur. Speeds vary widely from 2-25 Mbps, depending mostly on time of day probably due to user load.

MSC needs Starlink.

They all do, but of the 3-5K on board & the ships’ telemetry, I wonder if even Starlink has the bandwidth for a few hundred high density users?

Multiple cruise ships including Royal Caribbean use Starlink and are adding more ships

Starlink and cruise ships with installations and planned installations

I'd be curious to see if it's a simple mac filter. If so, you could probably have set up a router of some sort. Bit more tedious, but a lot more convenient (at least in your room and possibly your neighbours if you are traveling with kids)

I am not familiar with configuration of routers except my home Comcast module. My Android phone is still working quite well, and has allowed us to have up to 4 devices connected at once with the WiFi pass through function. It also gives me the option to use a spare line for cellular functions while near land. That, plus portability and long battery life makes it a great solution.

I am now approaching Saint Martin and there are several carriers that seem to have T-Mobile roaming service. My plan is to set up the IMS function with 2 of them for free calling to & from US numbers on my dual sim iPhone 14 Pro Max, and also free data service.

Here is my final update on my Motorola Edge 2022 Android phone as a pass through WiFi hotspot.

After a 17 day cruise with transatlantic crossing, I am happy to report that the functions I hoped would work were all successful. The Android WiFi pass through was flawless and provided a reliable hot spot with expected speeds and connectivity. I set up both of our iPhone 14 Pro Max' on IMS function in foreign ports and they tested and worked perfectly for both US calls and calls to each other while roaming internationally. I have been reviewing my T-Mobile Data Usage. It reports nothing but WiFi calling with two exceptions to local numbers in Barcelona as I expected. Shipboard WiFi calling was also quite good, even at the slow WiFi service in the middle of the 6 day Atlantic crossing. T-Mobile does not reliably allow account login outside the general North American region, so I could not check my usage stats once we began our crossing. I had some 20-30 minute chats with tech support over WiFi while at sea with no charges. Also, on the ship we could call each other for free due to our unlimited WiFi data packages. Be certain you are on WiFi only for this however, for the calls are free on WiFi, $6 a minute on the ships cellular service!

For other T-Mobile users with the 5 Gb, free high speed international data roaming service, I see that the international data use DOES NOT count against your regular data plan. I saw this effect using my phone in Mexico then other nations whle traveling this past January. The high speed 5 Gb Mexico roaming service is independent of the international 5 Gb data bucket. This bookkeeping method saves my main voice line the Kickback $10 @<2 Gb reward, while allowing each number a full 5Gb of high speed international roaming service. This is actually a pretty big deal to me, since I have often touted using a dual sim second line for data roaming while keeping your main line active for calling & texts. I now can count on having the free 5 Gb int. roaming data for each of the dual sims in my daily driver while overseas. So, I end up with 10 Gb of high speed data roaming per billing period.

Does your cruise have Starlink? My cruise in 3 weeks has Starlink and according to reports, it should have about 5Mbps speed. Not fast comparing to land side but fast enough for normal usage. And the T-Mobile 5Gb is per billing cycle, not per month. So, if your trip date crosses over your billing cycle end date, your 5Gb gets to start over! Unfortunately, my next 3-week trip ends in 1 day after my billing cycle ends LOL.

I am wondering if I don't put my T-Mobile on airplane mode while on the cruise, would I be charged with a ship cellular charge? I read on forums that when they got a cruise, they actually got a TXT saying that it is free. I have cruise WiFi, so putting phone on airplane mode while sailing would be fine, but there are lots of shore days that I need to turn off airplane mode. I am just afraid that I forgot to turn airplane mode back on when got back to the ship one evening and get a huge ship cellular charge overnight sailing.

I can't speak for the charges, but if you'll accept a recommendation... often when I am in similar situations, I set an alarm on my phone for when I should be back (in my case, it's turning off airplane mode because I'm inside a data centre where I get no signal). I do this to preserve battery life. In your case, let's say you're expected back by dinner, so you set the alarm for dinner with an appropriate label... then worse comes to worst, you have a small charge.

I was on the MSC Divina and it was not equipped with StarLink. I expect Starlink to give better speeds, but 5Mbps should handle most traffic if it is consistent.

The shipboard charges stem from cellular use while connected to their service. If you do not enable Airplane Mode, you MAY get an incoming call if your phone has connected to "Cellular At Sea" for instance or possibly 918-100 or similar. You will be charged the $6 a minute rate even if you do not answer, as you have had a completed call when it reaches your phone. Generally Airplane mode only disconnects cellular service so WiFi and Bluetooth both should be active and usable. Also, be careful of using your cellular service while in port but still on the ship. Some cruise ships "Forget" to turn off their cellular service within the typical 12 miles from shore. Look for the local carrier ID in your status bar (Top Row On Your display Next To Signal Bars) to confirm you have shore service.

Yeah that's what I am afraid that I have to do. I wish there is a way that you could set T-Mobile to say "Anything that requires extra charge do not let me do it." And Starlink was over 100Mbps on the cruise originally when it was introduced, but then the cruise line limited it to 5.

Try using VPN and see if you can access your TMO account outside of North America. I've been able to access mine from Canada and Europe. Silly me forgot to test this out in Singapore despite flying SFO-SIN many times last year.

TMO called me while I was in SIN to ask about my experience with them. They assured me the call would be free, but when got home, I saw a LD charge for picking up the call. I called TMO and they removed it after they verified it was a TMO call.

I think we discussed this in the past. I don't see a separate data counter for international or Canada/Mexico. I see everything lumped together. Therefore it's hard to tell what my usage is like. My domestic usage is well below what Magenta Max allows. I'm more worried about international usage than domestic.

​​​​​​​How do I figure out the date for my billing cycle? I only know the due date, which is the first of each month. I changed it to make it easy to remember when my bill is due.

Not really a solution to cut down the costs, but you can define this WiFi-hotspot generated by your phone as a METERED account on each device it connects to it.

AT least no background downloading of mails, social media, software updates....

Isquare,

On my desktop T-Mobile Account Manager I get a separate display for International Data under: Usage, Data, then scroll to the bottom of the list. There should be a category simply labeled "International Data" below "Messages" and "Calls". I don't think it appears unless you actually have some international data used. This appears per line if you have more than one on your account. Canada & Mexico do not register separately from my recollection. This had me wondering, but after roaming in Mexico, then several other countries, the High Speed data I was getting was in excess of the 5 Gb allocation. This was also confirmed by other users on Reddit. My plan going forward includes having 5 Gb HS data in Mexico, then another 5 Gb HS data globally per line, per billing period.

Your on line account displays the days remaining in the billing period under: Usage, Current Cycle. My billing has it's last day on the 4th of every month. This is a copy/paste:

Current cycle

Jun 05 - Jul 04, 2023 (30 days left)

I recall discussing this with you in another thread. I don't think I ever saw a different counter despite roaming in Malaysia and Singapore. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that. Doesn't matter if I'm on the desktop or mobile, I just don't see a separate counter. I forgot what you said.