Cell Phones

Well AT&T and Sprint are the dominants here in my Experience AT&T has the Largest Infrastructure in the USVI. Also your Verizon phones roams here using Centennial a local company from Puerto rico Not that good here? I don't know anyone that has US cellular or any other company from the midwest here.

We have had service with US Celllular for almost 20 years (remember those brick phones, and we thought we were cool too!). We live and work in Illinois and Iowa, but when we bought our place in STT it did not take long to figure out that although US Cellular works in the VI's our cell phone bill went through the roof over $600 for one week, ouch!

We purchased a plan with AT&T, it works almost as good as US Cellular in our part of the midwest. We have a few dead spots but I think that has more to do with the topography of our area and that the hills are full of lead.

I Know Us cellular and Alltel are very popular in the Midwest but locally here AT&T is KIng. There are dead spots because of topography of STT. Now if you live in the other side of the cliff then signal does not get to you. But overall AT&T is the strongest down here and i have met allot of people using Sprint. Now i just read this from the wireless show a couple of weeks ago but i think this is great. AT&T, Sprint, T-Moble, Verizon are going to be selling signal enhancers. Is a little antenna you could put in a desktop it will be program to your networks frequency ID# which is the same feeding large Antenna that feeds your mobile phone. What this device will do is act like a magnet and maganify you cellphone signal to an additional 50% more that what you normally get. For example if your phone in certain areas for example St Thomas only gets a bar or 2 so your reception is horrible this enhancer will increase that by 50% so you will get 2 additional bars or more so your signal strength will greatly improve. In regards to T-Mobile i read in caribbean business that they bought Suncom in the US and Puerto rico and they are expected to change their name in Puerto rico to T-Mobile in a couple of Month the article also said that Suncom has some cells in the USVI to offer service over there T-Mobile said that they will double the actual network in a year providing 100% coverage in Puerto rico and USVI.

I have Sprint but have a friend here who uses T-Mobile and has a plan that includes roaming.

Molly,
Thank you for the info. So you are not roaming when on island?

Thanks all. Just the answers I needed.

the signal enhancers work great! We had horrible cell phone and wireless internet signal at our boat in Green Cay Marina and recently installed an enhancer to boost our signal. Now we have a full five bars of signal even below decks. Previously we didn't get anything whatsoever belowdecks and signal was sketchy at best topside. This may help a lot of people who have had little or no reception at their homes due to being in a small dead zone on the wrong side of a ridge. It won't fix everything, but it's worth giving a try.

Alexandra,
Where did you buy the enhancer?

Sapphire,

We are not roaming when we are on STT. I have great reception when I am on island. We live down the road from you at Pineapple, so I would assume that your reception would be just as good.

Molly

Thanks Molly. ATT has got another customer.

An "enhancer" is a signal repeater. My experience is they only work if you have acceptable signal where you install the outdoor antenna. Must be less than 75 feet of RG6 cable between the outdoor antenna and the indoor repeater. I've seen mixed results. Glad yours is working well. You say it helps your wireless internet as well? What brand are you using and how much did it cost?
As I understand them they offer single band 800mHz and 1900mHz or the dual band. I believe Cingular is the only 800mHz and the rest are 1900mHz but check with your cell provider before you buy.
Mine came from http://www.cellamericas.com/ Easy to deal with and fast shipping to VI.