Is a stateside cellphone that big a deal?

The cell phone is not the issue. If your cell phone is from the states, then every call someone on-island makes to you is a long-distance call. Many people will not return your calls, either on principle or because of the cost involved.

yes, but don't almost if not all cellphone plans have free long distance or mobile to mobile and cingular seems to be the top carrier there

I know there are landlines, but i cant imagine who would not just call back on a cell or call me, I can understand not calling if one has no cell and does not have the money, but no calling out of principle- as in they wont call out of spite because I am an inconsiderate ass that got/had a phone before i moved to the VI and still have it now, punching in stateside numbers just burns me up. how could one be so thoughtless, the humanity!
"you come to our island and won't break your contract to renew with a new island phone!"

I was hoping to wait until I get to the island to get a phone because the lines in the store here are long and I hear the customer service is great down there so I could be in and out in a minute.

but seriously
I will have to look into the options and see what is best, maybe transfer to an island number once settled if that is possible

we kept our stateside number until we realized that our mobile to mobile minutes wouldn't work, because none of our calls came in as anything except "unkown", which means it uses up your daytime minutes even if your long distance is free. If you don't see an actual number pop up on your caller ID, then you won't receive mobile to moblie credit. We fought with Cingular because my husand and I weren't getting mobile to mobile because it was showing up unknown. We had to end up getting local numbers. Now all of our calls from the STATES show up as unknown, but if we call our family and friends from OUR phones, then we get moblie to mobile. If you are confused, you can email me, i'll explain it better.

Hi Philgazi,

I kept my stateside cell phone for 5 months after I moved to STT and I had no problems whatsoever. Most people have cell phones nowadays and with most plans, there is no extra charge to call a stateside number.

That said, I do have a landline with no long distance service attached to it and it costs me $30 per month. Before I got my VI cell phone number I used to give out both of my numbers, but found that people called my stateside cell phone number 99% of the time.

I think it is a good idea to have both a landline and a cell phone. Cell phone service can be very spotty and unreliable here and you will find that there will be times when you are unable to use your cell phone -- and that is when a landline comes in handy.

And of course, there will be those times when you won't be able to use either your cell phone or your landline. This is why you see us continually reminding people to bring a supply of tin cans and string.

I'm a business owner and you apply for a job. Why would I bother to make a long distance call to you. Or you're looking for an apartment. Why would a landlord make a long distance call?

More inportantly, the theory is that the stateside number says you are not committed to being here.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, son of a *h***heljhfb**8

well my phone sucked as is was the battery did not last long, i look tonight and it is dead, i plug it in and it says "use genuine battery" and turns off, (thinks to myself 'but it is the orig battery'??) i googled it and found little help, looks like it is broke.
I may have to get a phone here anyway. I am going to go to verizon and if they wont help I stop service and go to cingular. I have to talk to cingular, but I think you can switch numbers once you move. I looked up and found that some companies let you just resign up under a new number after moving, no new fees or such.

I am sure either way things will work out

thanks to all

You can always get the cingular service there and then go to a STT cingular office and ask to have a local number activated right after you arrive -- they may even be able to forward calls from your old stateside number (?). That's what we did with our Sprint service when we moved to STX. There was no charge as I recall but we also renewed a contract at the time of transfer so that may be why we escaped a fee.

Not sure about broadband availability all over STT (I'm sure there have been a ton of previous inquiries/answers to that effect) but here on STX we have to have a land line to get internet access via dial up, or pay the really out of our budget satellite service costs, because no form of DSL or WDSL is available at our home.

There's more than enough blessings offered by the islands and the people to make those really minor sacrifices to live with. 🙂

I recommend reading the below-referenced article which was on STT Source a couple of months ago:

http://new.onepaper.com/stthomasvi/?v=d&i=&s=Commentary:Op-ed&p=1147234682

I am also a business owner here (on STT) and cellphone communications have become a major problem. I often feel that I'm one of the few remaining people on the planet who not only doesn't own a cellphone but who also doesn't know how to use one. Well those keypad digits are WAY too small for old eyes, for a start.

Well, first off, I'm not going to call back anybody who's looking for a job if their prefix isn't in my area code.

IIt often takes me innumerable "redials" to reach someone here with a cellphone, ranging from the sweet-sounding, "your call cannot be completed at this time," to Spanish messages with NO English back-up when all that registers is, "mas tarde,"

This is not the real world where services are concerned. Cheers!

You do not have to wait to get to St Thomas to get a St. Thomas area code. When you go get your new phone just tell the company you want a 340 area code and they will give it to you. No Problems. It's What I did. I lived in Michigan and got a St. Thomas area code at my local phone company before moving here.

I'll second the opinion that calling numbers outside the 340 area code costs money for a lot of people. With all the hills, we don't all live within areas covered by cell phone signals. Our A/C company wouldn't even call Puerto Rico from STX to hunt down parts. We had to do the legwork, and then tell them which supplier we found.

BTW, if you're looking for a great long distance calling card deal to go with your land line, we have a CostCo calling card (service is actually provide by MCI), which we bought from the mainland (you have to be a CostCo member, or have a member buy it for you), which can be recharged with a credit card. It's just 2.9 cents/minute to call within the US, and higher rates apply for calling foreign countries. We use this card for all long distance from our land line. We don't even have a long distance service on our land line.

More info at http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?ProdID=11047875

Hi again Philgazi,

If you need a new phone, you should just go ahead and buy it in the states before you leave. Chances are it will be less expensive and you will have a better selection to chose from (although I have not shopped cell phones on STT).

As Comingsoon pointed out, you do not need to wait until you get to the VI to obtain your VI cell phone number. I purchased my new cell phone during a recent visit to the states and got my new VI phone number set up at the same time.

Good luck and have a safe trip :)!