what cell phone service is available?

I have Cingular on STX and it seems to work fine. I have had it for about 3 years.

Is it the same for mobil to mobil? Can our family state side still call us? Or are there charges? Is VI considered international?

The cingular plan available on STX is BETTER than what you can usually get stateside. Sign up for the nationwide plan and you will get all your minutes, plus mobile to mobile free, plus weekends and evenings free and no roaming or long distance. Second phone is $10 per month plus tax to share minutes on plans of 800 or more.

The phones also typically work down-island when traveling and some of the islands don't even show up on your bill (St. Lucia), while others only charge you minutes against your time (Curacao, Barbados, Antigua, Aruba). At least in my personal experience. St. Martin and St. Bart's come up as international minutes and you pay through the nose. 🙁

A friend with a stateside Cingular plan was traveling with me on one down-island trip and her phone wouldn't work when mine would.

Wow, how much do they charge you to call state side?

For PMV'ers who need to do a lot of running around and on-island calling would it be easier (and cheaper) to just get a phone card?

Nothing

cingular nationwide plan is free from the USVI to the mainland states and to assorted other islands down the chain. If you keep your cingular plan from the mainland, you might not get the full coverage and you may have more charges in areas that they don't think your plan should be active in. Once in the islands, you should be able to get the local cingular office to swap your mainland cingular plan for the island's nationwide plan coverage.

For Cingular on STT, read the following:

http://new.onepaper.com/stthomasvi/?v=d&i=&s=Commentary:Open+Forum&p=1147234391