Hello all, apologies to those who have picked this up already but my wife and I just crossed the channel on Brittany Ferries Caen to Portsmouth ferry. It was an overnight crossing so we just drove aboard and got our heads down in our cabin. The following morning my Free.fr phone pinged up it had stopped my data as I had hit it’s 50 Euro limit. Without any warning it had latched onto a Maritime service for data at 9euro /Mb! A couple of emails was enough… My wife’s Orange phone managed 28 Euros too…Brittany Ferries say nothing to do with us, read the small print in our welcome email. Anyway there’s an ongoing discussion as I can’t actually find anything in their communications about this, only about their onboard wifi. So just in case anyone is not aware, turn your data roaming off on the boat!
On the way to the UK with BF in September they made an announcement to warn people about this.
This is why it’s unwise to waive the EU roaming data cap. Similar problem on cruise vessels.
I don’t recall it being a ludicrously stinging as 9€ per MB but, yes, you have to watch this like a hawk - when out of reach of a land-locked base station either turn off data or if you’re not bothered about connecting to the ship’s Wi-Fi engage aeroplane mode.
BF said they have an announcement on the tannoy but I think I was in bed by then!
Our crossing was in the afternoon on the same route as you and was made as soon as we set sail. I wonder if it is just that route because we did St Malo/ Portsmouth a couple of weeks ago and didn’t hear any announcement.
Experienced this when crossing to Ireland from Cherbourg recently. I got a warning on my phone that has a SFR sim in it, but not on my other mobile that has an Orange sim, that one just switched to satellite internet roaming automatically, and then told me after the fact. Had it not been for the SFR warning, I would have ended up with a very heft bill ! Turned both phones off until we were about a mile of the coast of Ireland. Same on the way back.
Yes, I got caught by that on Irish Ferries once. Now I turn off data roaming whenever I board a ship.