Cell Phones in St. Martin and St.Thomas

[newbiejay]

Is there any service? I have Verizon. What to expect, if anything?

[micnmag]

I used my verizon in Feb on St ThomasI didn't try it in St Martin

Mags

[crusingchicks]

I have Cingular and the cell phone worked fine in St Thomas but not in
St Maarten.

[CruiseFever]

Oh it will work alright

Just be sure you know your calling plan

I thought St Thomas, being a part of the United States, would be covered but found out the hard way that my free long distance without roaming charges was for the [I]continental [/I] United States

[beachnative]

Yes, your cell phone will work in St.Martin. We spend ten days there each April and use our phone...however, you have to sign up with Caribbean Cellular. To do this you dial your outgoing call, after a few rings you will be connected with Caribbean Cellular and they will set up an account for you. If you are only in St. Martin for a day this probably would not be an option you wanted.

Your cell phone will work in St.Thomas the same as it does in the U.S. (dial and the call goes straight through). We made a couple of calls this past July from our balcony on the Caribbean Princess...there is a long distance charge but we didn't find it to be much.

[Ocean Boy]

Actually, Cingular covers the continental US, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. Keep in mind that cellular systems are transitioning over to the GMS (Global Messaging System) technology. If you still have an older digital phone you may not be able to connect with towers that have been switched over. If fact, you may find that you are having a harder time getting good reception in your home area if you still have one of the older phones.

[gopher's girl]

Sprint works in San Juan and St. Thomas and is included in the Nationwide calling plan.

[roe2ship]

I have Verizon and it worked in St. Thomas but not in St. Maarten. Verizon informed me of a way (but I forgot) of how to find out if you are roaming or not before you make the call. Call them and they will help you.

[CleoChase]

Much to my dismay, my DH spent over an hour on his cell phone while sitting on at balcony at the peer in St. Thomas. While I was really worried about the how much it was going to cost, it ended up being covered in our plan so it did not cost us any money.

However, DH and I did have a discussion about no phone calls to work on our next cruise. :rolleyes:

[sbwhite2]

Cingular Wireless Nationwide plans include St Thomas in some of their plans. We had a girls week on the island earlier this year and all of us had Cingular plans..mine was the only one that was no roaming/long distance charges from there....check before you go to avoid surprises.

[newbiejay]

Thanks all for your replies! I have Verizon and will check with them. Also have fairly new phone. The only reason I care about this is that I am leaving my dh at home and it might be nice to check in once in a while. lol Traveling with my daughter.

[anytimeuwnt]

-----Keep in mind that cellular systems are transitioning over to the GMS (Global Messaging System) technology.------- Quote.


Hello, I actually work for Cingular/AT&T Wireless. On their GSM America Plans St. Thomas & Puerto Rico (not St. Martin) are fully covered in your calling plan. The only thing not covered is free mobile-2-mobile. You will be charged your package minutes during the day and your night and weekend minutes at night. But not roaming.

GSM (Global Systems for Mobile Communication) is the international standard in cellular technology. T-Mobile, AT&T, & Cingular all sell it. Verizon and Sprint use CDMA technology and will not recieve much service outside of the country. The carribean is usually covered by all carriers but my charge you a roaming rate depending on the plan you are on.

Good Tip -- If you plan on doing alot of traveling it would be a very good idea to buy a GSM phone as it will give you the most flexibility outside of the US. Europe, Asia, Africa all have good GSM coverage but very little of anything else. This can be bad for Verizon and Sprint customers who travel.

Let me know if this helped. :)

[wdonnieb]

I spoke with Sprint PCS and they said that St. Thomas and San Juan are local calling at no extra charge. St. Maarten is roam at $1.50 per min, St. Lucia, Barbados, Antigua are all roam at $.99 per minute. Of course you have to have a dual digital/analog phone for this to work.

[CruiseFever]

[quote name='sbwhite2']Cingular Wireless Nationwide plans include St Thomas in some of their plans. We had a girls week on the island earlier this year and all of us had Cingular plans..mine was the only one that was no roaming/long distance charges from there....check before you go to avoid surprises.[/QUOTE]

Excellent Advice

Our Cingular plan did NOT include anything outside of the continental United States at the time. Now it appears that it does!

[IMG]http://onlinestore.cingular.com/images/Maps/National/NAT_GSM.gif[/IMG]

[MauiLuvr]

I have an old cell phone (certainly no fancy new stuff) with AT&T service and, if I remember correctly, I have had phone service in every Eastern and Western Caribbean port I've been to except for Costa Maya (can't remember if I checked for service at Princess Cays).