USVI-On-Line

I'm hoping someone can tell me, if I am sailing round the British Virgin Islands will my cell phone roam to a US tower or British? I am Canadian and if my phone roams to the US no problem but if it roams to a British tower whoa...it will be very expensive.

Thanks for any ideas or suggestions

I would suggest talking with your service carrier prior to your trip... this is based on a recent learning experience my husband and I had. We were not sailing but our ATT iphone did roam; all is good now, but we could have had a better experience by checking with ATT first.
Enjoy your sailing adventures!

Hi Sisestalola,

I am also from Ontario & agree that the costs for roaming are expensive. What I have done for the last 3 years is I purchased a US AT&T pay as you go phone, now I am not sure about the roaming charges, but the cost for phone & text msg is so cheap. A text is like .10, phone calls to home are about $2.50 for half an hour, this is fron St John & St Thomas. I haven't used in in the BVI'S. Now if you are only doing a one time vacation it may not be worth it.

The first phone I bought, I picked up at Best Buy in Michigan for $20.00 & it came with a $10.00 air credit. I picked up an additional card for $25.00 & had plenty of $$ left on the phone.
Now & just buy a $100.00 card which is good for a year so it more than covers all our trips to the south.

Hope this helps.

The Shopper

Pia wrote:99.9999% of the time it will be a BVI tower and you are right, verrrry expensive

A fun fact - I get a US tower when sitting at Soggy Dollar on Jost but a BVI tower when sitting on Cinnamon and sometimes Trunk on STJ - it's just the island way

Pia,
Thank you for your reply.

Will I be able to tell from looking at my phone where I am roaming to?

theshopper3 wrote:Hi Sisestalola,

I am also from Ontario & agree that the costs for roaming are expensive. What I have done for the last 3 years is I purchased a US AT&T pay as you go phone, now I am not sure about the roaming charges, but the cost for phone & text msg is so cheap. A text is like .10, phone calls to home are about $2.50 for half an hour, this is fron St John & St Thomas. I haven't used in in the BVI'S. Now if you are only doing a one time vacation it may not be worth it.

The first phone I bought, I picked up at Best Buy in Michigan for $20.00 & it came with a $10.00 air credit. I picked up an additional card for $25.00 & had plenty of $$ left on the phone.
Now & just buy a $100.00 card which is good for a year so it more than covers all our trips to the south.

Hope this helps.

The Shopper

The Shopper,
What a great idea I hadn't thought of that. Perhaps I can just buy a card when I get there and load it into my phone.

Thank you!

Hi Sisiestlola,

If you have a Canadian phone I don't beleive we can put a SIM card in our's. I had a friends from Scotland here & that is what he does, & we tried to put his in mine & it can't be done. I beleive I even called about it.

Are you flying out of the states by chance???, That is where I bought mine.Not sure if you can order it on line or not. You could give AT&T a call & see what they say about roaming in the BVI'S

I can also access my email on mine which is a bonus as well.

When are you heading down??? I am going May 1 & will b in the BVI's for 4 days, so I may have an answer after that trip.

The Shopper

theshopper3 wrote:Hi Sisiestlola,

If you have a Canadian phone I don't beleive we can put a SIM card in our's. I had a friends from Scotland here & that is what he does, & we tried to put his in mine & it can't be done. I beleive I even called about it.

Are you flying out of the states by chance???, That is where I bought mine.Not sure if you can order it on line or not. You could give AT&T a call & see what they say about roaming in the BVI'S

I can also access my email on mine which is a bonus as well.

When are you heading down??? I am going May 1 & will b in the BVI's for 4 days, so I may have an answer after that trip.

The Shopper

I just got off the phone with bell for the 3rd time today. I have a Blackberry 8830 World Edition they tell me if I purchase a Sim Card my phone number will change. GEEEEEZ

I think I will have to bite the bullet and buy a US package for $70 (ouch) and hope I'm only roaming the US tower

I am flying out of Detroit on Thursday morning, arrive St Thomas at 4:00 YAY! Our first trip to that part of the world.

What is your real need for the phone???
Can you get by with texting or emailing??? A text msg is .15 cents & I never got a charge for using email.

You may find it cheaper to go with the AT&T phone. If you are flying out of Detroit you can pick one up at the mall that is about 10 minutes from the airport, for the life of me I can't remember the name but can email you later tonight. I have it in the car.

Thanks
The Shopper

A word of caution::: Keep the phone in a zip lock bag, my first one got hit by a wave while hanging on the back of my chair in a pouch at Maho & died....

Hi again,
The mall is the Oakland Mall, if you are interested in checking it out.

When Bell said your phone # will change is that just temporary, that is what happened when our friend from Scotland put the sim card in his. I beleive his reverts back once he takes the card out.

Good Luck & have an awesome trip.
We love STJ & are counting our sleeps until our 7th Adventure in Paradise with a little Tortola on the side.

Detroit is awesome to fly out of, you get through security in no time.

The Shopper

Shopper3,

Thank you for all the information you have provided me.

When you install a Sim Card you get a new phone number until you remove the sim card, so thats a great idea for outgoing calls.

The reason I need/want my phone handy is I like to know my children can reach me at anytime. I have decided to put the travel package on while I'm away for $70.

From following this board, and reading all the positive comments, I have a pretty good feeling about our vacation. Can't wait to get there!