Cell Phone Carriers

Hi Icaratha,
I've actually had great luck for the last 5-6 (?) yrs. with Cingular, now called AT&T. I still have those (rare) days when their signal doesn't come thru, but all around, I've always had really good service. BEWARE though all of you out there!!...we just got hit with something called "cruise-ship roaming" and had to fight to get it remedied (actually, still going thru it). :-X

I second Cingular, now AT&T. Sometimes the Tortola tower picks up the call and I get charged for roaming but a call always results in a credit.

I would humbly suggest you wait until you know where you're going to be living. The islands are a little tricky. Some carriers work better in different areas. Basically you have two choices, Sprint/Nextel & ATT/Cingular. Right? Always forget who combined with who. I've used Sprint for the past 5 years or so, the deal I have is so good I can't give it up. Wouldnt get as much with the new plans.

Other STT dwellers have mentioned one of the plans picks up BVI roaming charges sometimes. That would be a big negative to me.

Nextel doesn't work down here as far as the walkie talkie goes. I have AT&T and my boyfriend has Sprint. That way, no matter what, someone works! For the last hurricane, AT&T towers went down and Sprint stayed up and running, periodically. I hear TONS of people that hate Sprint due to overage charges, lack of customer service, etc...I don't have problems with my AT&T. Now that the 3G network is up, I almost always have service.

I have Sprint on STX which works really well where I work and live. AT&T doesn't work where I work which would be very inconvenient. Both companies have very detailed coverage maps of the islands on their websites. For AT&T, "moderate" service is really not good and barely allows you to make or receive calls (based on colleagues/friends phone coverage) . For Sprint "fair" signal is not good either. Sometimes you can make calls, other times no.

A coverage map may not help you if you don't know where you'll be living or working, but if you have a good idea of certain areas you may want to be, it might help make a decision.

On STT, Sprint doesn't work where I live but does in other areas so I use AT&T. It all depends on where you'll be on STT/STJ which are both hilly.

Edited to add that in the last hurricane, STX got hit worse than STT & the AT&T towers didn't go down over here to my knowledge. At least my cell never went down.

Thank you for all your replies. They have been very helpful. I should either renew with Sprint or switch to AT&T. I didn't see any recommendations for Verizon or Alltel. Are they even available in STT/STJ? I'm assuming most of my time will be on St John's since I have applied for a position at the National Park. You all are a friendly and helpful bunch.

LC

The cell service on the East end of STX was impacted. For a number of days I had to drive as far west as Cheeseburgers to make a call. then after about seven days AT&Ts as well as everyone elses generators began running out of fuel. This caused additional outages.

Jim

I have Sprint and it works like a charm. In fact I can see the tower that serves me on the east end. I get coverage almost everywhere. The only place that I don't is some areas on the north side.

Verizon is roaming here so you might not want it.

ATT/Cingular is also pretty good.

billd

i have sprint in STT and i am impress so far with the service i had AT&T here in peterborgh and the signal wasn't that great and also the great thing is that sprint uses CDMA EVDO technology so pretty much you don't have to worry picking up either cable and wireless in the BVI or Digicel because the use GSM and believe that was an issue with AT&T i had to call several times to get the charges out of my plan. Is true certain areas of the island are better for one or the other but Sprint is great so far for me .

Update: still like AT&T/Cingular, but still haven't had any response or feedback regarding the "cruise-ship roaming fee" issue I mentioned before. I guess it will be up to me again to contact them to find out the status of my complaint/dispute with the company. ( the roaming fees in dispute total almost $800 for the 6-day period of my mother's cruise versus my regular monthly bill of the last 5 years of no more than $75 ) !!:-o:S:-X

I bought a pay-as-you-go phone at Radio Shack in STT and used it all of February in VI and Florida with no problems. The carrier is AT&T.

On STJ, you will need either Sprint or AT&T. It completely depends on where you will be living as to how good your coverage is -- throughout Cruz Bay, I had no problems getting a Sprint signal. I did not get much signal at all out at my house. My friend who has an AT&T phone had no problems using her phone at my place.

If your plan is under contract, you can cancel it for free if you move someplace and find it doesn't work in your home. If you don't have a contract, you can get a couple of pay-as-you-go phones to try out each carrier and figure out which will work best for your needs. Keep the other as a backup for when one carrier's service goes down.

Good luck!