Telstra international roaming and being on a cruise

If you’re an Australian with Telstra and are contemplating a cruise, be aware that Telstra’s daily international roaming/day pass fee (e.g. $5/day for NZ, $10/day for US) DOES NOT cover any time your phone might say ‘Cellular at Sea’ or similar and you will be charged for EVERY SMS and email received, even though you have no internet connection for other data. (Fortunately, there’s no internet connection otherwise the data charges would be astronomical!).

How did I find this out? Because Telstra sent me a message when I had exceeded $100 and then $200 in charges (I was expecting $35 for 7 days around NZ), and when I was back in Australia and queried it, they said international roaming doesn’t cover you once the ship leaves port, even if you appear to have connection to local towers near the coast or ‘Cellular at Sea’ (as I saw on the ship I was on).

And guess what? I could find NOTHING about this at all on their website. There’s just NO information about cruising and the charges you will incur: https://www.telstra.com.au/international-roaming

That said, the charges I incurred were far less than I would’ve paid on the ship for patchy internet connection, but at least I would have had some data connection for that money instead of the second by second charges Telstra charged me for receiving (not sending!) an SMS or email.