Questions

I use cingular, but I've heard several horror stories about their service. Sprint has been recommended. Just like in rural areas in the states, sometimes the signal isn't good.
There is a Dept. of Labor office. I think they handle unemployment. I think it's in the Sunny Isle Shopping area.

I have Cingular and I'd say it's decent. We are a hilly island, and in some valleys, no company can provide good service.

Hi FOG,

Should I set up my Cingular service here where I am currently living or wait until I get to STX to set up my service? I remember reading something on this message board that it was better to have a mainland number.

Frankly, I'm not too excited about getting into the cell phone thing. I'm a real Luddite when it comes to that technology. Maybe because my little Mazda has almost been creamed about 5 times by a driver on a cell phone.

Also, most of the students on this campus now walk around talking into their tiny little cell phones, and they no longer look at you and say "Howdy!" This campus used to be known for its friendliness, but not any more. I think that cell phones have had a lot to do with that, IMHO.

But I digress . . .

Given my distaste for cell phones, do you think that I could I get by with a prepaid phone card whenever I want to make a long distance call? I'll have an office phone with a private line, I think, and I'll also be able to use my landlady's phone. With both of those, I can use the phone card to make my LD calls.

Kinsey

Kinsey,
I use Cingular service and it seems to work pretty well. A fellow that I work with has Sprint and is thinking of changing to Cingular. A cell phone is necessary because the land-line service is so unreliable. I don't have long distance service on either the cell phone or the land-line. I use a phone card. It works quite well for us. We call my daughter and the grandkids and my father-in-law in the states and our son in Mexico.

I use sprint and just had my number changed to STX as I will nolonger have a mainland address. I have had no trouble calling over to stx from here and even now with my stx number I have no trouble so far. I do have unlimited nights and weekends free and the time starts at 7pm stx time. Hope this helps

The telephone is my apartment is included in the rent but does not include long distance - in answer to your prepaid phone card question - the USA talk phone card works great. On a $5 card I get 4 hours and 36 minutes to Illinois. I bought a $10 card the other day and it didn't seem like much better deal but yes, you can get by with prepaid phone cards. Another bonus is there is no bill at the end of the month.
Pamela.

Thank you for your help!