O2 Maritime roaming

[NC201]

Does anyone know whether O2 still have a Roaming agreement with the Cellular at Sea Maritime network? I'm currently on a cruise ship but my phone won't attach to the network, the updated page (August '22) on Cellular at Sea's site states TEF UK has a Roaming agreement.

[Chris_K · Accepted solution]

I've double checked into this and though I've not had confirmation we definitely have a roaming agreement with Cellular at Sea's Maritime network, looking at their website, terms and the sections you've copy/pasted above, I've no reason to believe that we don't have an agreement - so, it should work.

Two things to mention at this point are:

1) For maritime / cruise networks you won't be able to use data, but once you're connected to it voice calls and texts should work

2) The fact you can't connect to the network at all, when others on Sky for instance can, to me suggests an account based issue. I believe it's very likely you have a roaming bar on your account that's preventing you connecting to this network. Best way around that is to give us a call or if more convenient, get in touch via our Social Media profiles - Twitter, Facebook & Instagram

[NC201]

Thanks @Chris_K for the reply snd confirmation regarding the roaming side of things. Having access to incoming calls and texts, again appreciating their costs, whilst being at Sea for me is what I'm after. I'll give CS a call.

One other question, and an issue I've got; I'm not getting SMS notifications of pricing when I roam on to respective EU and non-EU networks. For example, we went to Turkey for a day and others on O2 all got a notification that their £6/day O2 Travel had kicked in for that day, myself nothing, same when arriving in Italy, Greece or even Ireland.

I had an initial issue porting in my existing number which had to be resolved on a further number port attempt and wonder if these notifications are actually going to the temporary number I had and not my ported in number?

[Chris_K]

That's very odd, regarding the foreign network 'welcome sms'. Can I ask though, are you able to connect to those networks and use services on it? If you can connect to those OK and use them then that rules out a roaming bar being the issue. If you can't connect to those networks and/or use them, then I think that may serve as further evidence you have a roaming bar on your account which once lifted, should allow you to roam on those networks and very likely you'll receive the welcome SMS at that point when arriving in a new country.

Admittedly the above is a bit of guesswork without having access to your account - so our customer services should be able to check and confirm that. Though we're busier than normal, if it's more convenient to you and you don't mind not getting an immediate response, our teams on Social Media can provide the same support and it'd save you waiting on hold and able to enjoy your holiday.

[NC201]

Hi @Chris_K, yep I can definitely roam on to the foreign networks and been using TIM & Wind ITA, Cosmote and Wind Greece, plus Turkcell when in Turkey for a day, all with calls, data and SMS. Its just the Martitme network I dont have access to. I've not received any SMS advising of any roaming costs, especially the Turkey visit as would have thought I'd been notified of the £6/day O2 Travel cost associated with Roaming in Turkey etc.

When I joined O2 back in July there was a porting error with my original number and I lost my existing porting in number for 24hrs when it had to be repeated. I'm now wondering if these text messages are going to the original, temporary, number?

I'll give CS a call but concerned they won't understand and the issues will fall in to a black hole, not sure if your team has better access to second-line  back office staff who might have be able to resolve much quicker? 

[Chris_K]

Admittedly it's been a long time since I worked on our 'Voice' teams so I can't compare one to the other, but I can say with some confidence that our Social Media teams have strong escalation routes and we take great ownership of issues - usually if/when we need to involve someone or another team, it'll be the original handler that will return back to you with an update or to ask additional info.

Plus on Social, when contacting us you can link back to this thread which will have further info and context which would definitely help the understanding of the situation.

[NC201]

@Chris_K that would be great if you could look in to this for me rather than CS. Do you want me to PM you with my mobile number?

[NC201]

Just bumping this thread as I'm on another cruise and can't connect to Cellular at Sea. Roaming on other land based, and aircraft based networks (flying Emirates) works fine. Has anybody else roamed successfully on to this Maritime network when cruising?

[Oxonian]

@NC201 

You probably won't get a reply by jumping onto this very old thread. @Chris_K is about to leave his job with O2 and everyone else seems to have overlooked your post. 

Could I suggest that you start a new thread ? You might want to post a link to this thread for information ; maybe someone who knows about this area will pick it up.   

[madasaf1sh]

@NC201 

Lets try this again thanks to the ***** pop up

Having had a look at Cellular at Sea's website it seems to be pushed towards AT&T and Verizon and their Cruise Plans, and although the UK networks are mentioned that list looks like a cut and paste from another website. 

I would tweet them https://twitter.com/cellular_at_sea and ask them if there is a reason why it is not working.. 

[Chris_K]

This is a weird one. So, when your phone connects to a roaming network it does like a handshake with the home network to check if it's OK to connect or not. For example, we may not have any roaming agreements, or you may have roaming blocked on your account - so that's where the handshake comes in and why it exists.

We don't explicitly have Cellular At Sea blocked, but due to the massive data usage costs we do only permit calls and texts on it and data is blocked - this is to prevent bill shock for customers. The fact you can roam fine on another networks and just can't connect at all to this one does have me perplexed, and unfortunately there's nothing we can do our side.

Short of contacting Cellular at Sea directly (if you find any contact info) about it, all I can suggest if you haven't already is to try and repeatedly connect to it a few times in a row. I can't confirm if it's the case or not, but networks will have preferred roaming partners your phone will always seek one of those out to connect to first. I know with some networks they may reject initial requests to connect to a non-preferred network, but repeated requests then open it up and eventually get accepted - I'm truthfully unsure if that's what's going on here but it may be worth trying.