BBVI after Maria

I am using a Viya wireless Hotspot and an Amazon Firestick for internet and TV at our rental condo south of Fsted, and both have worked fine as an option for vacationers. I have BBVI and Dish at my home near Cane Bay and they are working as well as ever. With Viya, you can make an appointment, go to their office near Sunny Isle, and pick up the hotspot and take it home with you and have internet service immediately. Their plans do have data limits but I have not see any effect yet from exceeding those limits. For BBVI, you will need to go to their office in Csted in person and try to make an appointment to come out to your house, which might be a while. They might be answering their phones now but they were not last month.

Thanks Scubadoo and JE - perfectly practical.

FYI - VIYA just said same day pickup of portable hotspot near JSL hospital, with $80 refundable deposit as new customer, and monthly fee depending on speed... a good temporary solution for a couple months.

So seems I can carry it around for my iphone and laptop, and works wherever the VIYA coverage is good. Hopefully at the apartment and along favorite beaches like Dorsch/Beachside Cafe area. VIYA's online map seems to cover my area.

But no VIYA home internet installations for new customers for now.

Remaining question is what speed.
Any opinions on whether 12Mbps download is good enough for streaming youtube music and videos, including occasional hour long documentaries? ... mostly near sea south of F'sted town.

Thanks again.

You can probably get by with 12Mbps download for a single streaming device. I was using BBVI for Netflix and and some other free streaming services through my smart DVD player and also live TV through laptop using my Viya cable account live TV login. I don't recall the exact speeds last time I measured but I think it was something in the area of 12-20Mbps. Of course it varied.

From the Netflix website :

Below are the internet download speed recommendations per stream for playing TV shows and movies through Netflix.

0.5 Megabits per second - Required broadband connection speed

1.5 Megabits per second - Recommended broadband connection speed

3.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for SD quality

5.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for HD quality

25 Megabits per second - Recommended for Ultra HD quality

Requirements for YouTube and other streaming services are about the same

Thanks Scubadoo and JE - perfectly practical.

FYI - VIYA just said same day pickup of portable hotspot near JSL hospital, with $80 refundable deposit as new customer, and monthly fee depending on speed... a good temporary solution for a couple months.

So seems I can carry it around for my iphone and laptop, and works wherever the VIYA coverage is good. Hopefully at the apartment and along favorite beaches like Dorsch/Beachside Cafe area. VIYA's online map seems to cover my area.

But no VIYA home internet installations for new customers for now.

Remaining question is what speed.
Any opinions on whether 12Mbps download is good enough for streaming youtube music and videos, including occasional hour long documentaries? ... mostly near sea south of F'sted town.

Thanks again.

Those boxes are on a data cap. 20 on one plan 30 on the other. Speed really doesn't matter if you use the data then go to just above dial up. Most can use that in a week these days--

I also purchased an ATT wifi hotspot (made by Net Gear) while trying to figure out internet options for our oceanfront condo just south of Fsted and it worked well at that location and multiple other locations on STX where we have tested it (Cane Bay to past the Reef Condos in the far east). If you have an ATT cell phone plan then you can add the hotspot to your plan for $20/month. If not, you need to establish a new plan with ATT for around $50/month. ATT does have a data limit and states that they have the right to slow down your speed in congested areas once you exceed your monthly limit (which I do within the first week each month), but so far I have not seen any evidence that they actually do that here.

You can use the ATT Hot Spot feature on your cell phone rather than buying another piece of equipment.

You can use the ATT Hot Spot feature on your cell phone rather than buying another piece of equipment.

The ATT cell phone hotspot feature does work well and we used it for several weeks at our house until we got BBVI back so my wife, who has Sprint, and our computers could have internet service. But if providing wifi capability for vacationers at a rental property then the separate hot spot comes in handy.

The continuing info has been so helpful. You all are awesome!

FYI
and for those who might search as I did for current internet news during the Irmaria transition, Here's what I did.

My single-user solution was needed only for iphone and laptop for a couple months:

DONE #1. Switched my AT&T plan from "mobile share advantage 1G" to domestic "unlimited plus", effective immediately with a phone call. The difference in cost was $45/month for the several weeks I will use it, without activation/termination fees. I couldn't just add to my existing plan because existing limit was 1G, and would have cost $15/month more for each extra Gig actually used. (BEWARE!!) Domestic range, plus USVI, Canada, Mexico

Two other options, at slower download speeds of 5-20Mbps:
#2. Add to existing AT&T plan:
"hotspot" for $20/month with one time $25 activation fee. Includes a physical router device (shipped or picked up at AT&T store) to carry around and remember to recharge, which is assigned an extra phone number. But I would have triggered significant overage charges.

#3. Add an iphone feature without any additional device, with existing AT&T plan:
"ATT passport" for $60/month, no activation or termination fee. included unlimited worldwide texting at no cost.

It took asking AT&T lots of questions, especially how existing plan data limits worked differently with each option. Option #1 came out ONLY in the last 5 minutes of long phonecall.

Thanks again for all the practical help.

Beeski - I submitted this question via your website but wanted to ask here also because we have to make a major decision soon. We are considering purchasing a home on St Croix in Judith's Fancy. But we can only relocate from the states to St Croix if I have internet available immediately upon arrival...to manage my consulting business. I realize after the hurricanes that your staff is most likely stretched pretty thin and the priorities are to get the island businesses up and running. But if we were to close on the Judith's Fancy home in April 2018, approximately how long would you estimate it would take to get internet up and running at the house? The home has been vacant for approximately 2 years so there is no current service in place. Thank you in advance for ANY information you can provide to help us make this important decision.

Beeski - I submitted this question via your website but wanted to ask here also because we have to make a major decision soon. We are considering purchasing a home on St Croix in Judith's Fancy. But we can only relocate from the states to St Croix if I have internet available immediately upon arrival...to manage my consulting business. I realize after the hurricanes that your staff is most likely stretched pretty thin and the priorities are to get the island businesses up and running. But if we were to close on the Judith's Fancy home in April 2018, approximately how long would you estimate it would take to get internet up and running at the house? The home has been vacant for approximately 2 years so there is no current service in place. Thank you in advance for ANY information you can provide to help us make this important decision.

Internet = yes.
Immediately = no.