iphone

I hope you have a really good job because those iphones are expensive.

No 3G service in VI yet so data speeds are slower.

Jim

I have a new Iphone 3 G with a 340 area code.
Works perfectly.

I do have it with AT&T not all features function like the GPS is not very accurate and the Edge network is still not fastest like in San Juan and Mainland USA but everything else works fine the internet is not that slow either. what i did is get an Iphone in Miami brought it to STT and had it change to a 340 area code. Now last week i had a friend of mine visit me he brought his Samsung Instinct with Sprint ant the phone work awesome and faster than AT&T even with tv channels and faster internet than AT&T everywhere i went with him he had signal.

Do I need the 340 area code? I was told I could keep my same number and since its a cell phone I obviously won't have any roaming charges correct? I really don't want to have to change my number :o/ About sprint , that is the first time I have heard something good about them. I heard the service quality is poor and they don't have good phones.

No you don't have to but allot of locals here are somehow hesitant if they don't have a nationwide plan to call outside 340 area code also innovative telephone has very steep charges for long distance so allot businesses hesitate to call long distance unless they have to. So is up to you i had it done no charge i think if you are going to live in STT you should have a local 340 area code it takes a couple of minutes in the AT&T office.

In regards to AT&T the service is very comparable to the mainland and is getting better i don't complain in regards to phone they have all the phones and blackberry they have in the US except the I phone i don't know why. I was told that AT&T usvi is run from Puerto rico where Apple sold the rights to sell the Iphone to Claro the new owner of Puerto rico telephone company so AT&T cannot do anything about it. But what i heard that AT&T USVI somehow will be independent to sell it soon locally. But already you could go with no problems to the AT&T office in crown bay and have your phone with a 340 area code same plan same terms no problems.

FYI if you need a 340 area code for a small volume of calls like I did but don't want to give up your cell number (I've had mine for 10 years) here's a trick. I got a pay as you go phone from Cingular (now AT&T) with a 340 number. I then set it up to forward calls to my regular number. I put $100 on it which gets me a few hours of call forwarding and lasts a year. Total cost is less than $10/month and you've got your (340) number to give to locals/govt./etc. If I know a call is going to be long I'll just call the person back on my regular cell to keep from burning through the $100 too quickly, I've never actually used all $100 in my situation, usually the year runs out before the money does.

Hope this is helpful, I've done it for 3 years now with no problems. Details: you do have to buy a pay as you go phone (get the cheapest one of course because you aren't even going to use it, like $50) and the phone has to stay plugged in somewhere getting service for forwarding to work (the phone doesn't ring but somehow if it doesn't register with the network periodically it will stop forwarding). You get charged 50 cents per minute for call forwarding (.25 inbound .25 outbound) so you get 200 minutes of forwarding during the year for your $100.

Sean

great idea stiphy. I am seriously considering changing to Sprint 99.00 dollar everything plan my friend has it and he pays almost 30 dollars less that i do with AT&T and he has 20 tv channels great internet and everything else i have with the I phone with the Samsung instinct . I am a civil engineer but i have talk to some communication engineers and they have told me that hands down CDMA which is the system that Sprint and Verizon use is better for fast internet and voice clarity because is a 100% digital system and 3g works better with CDMA. GSM which is the global standard that AT&T uses as well as T-Mobile in the US is also the most used in the world and is based on a radio type frequencies that cover more spaces than CDMA so in Europe they decided it was cheaper to Use GSM than Qualcomm CDMA because less towers are needed to cover areas as per CDMA which is 100% you need to make a bigger investment. In the US there is no better network and you could see this in Cnet and all tech magazines that cover this than Verizon, but Sprint is said to have more 3g CDMA than any other carrier in the US.

How is Sprint coverage/reception on STX?

i had pretty good service except when going around a mountain or in "spots" as there are here in the states. i will be there for 9 days the weekend after next, so i can give a more accurate answer then if you don't get much response here.
i am moving in october and i had good enough coverage to plan on keeping my service as is.

Thanks