USVI-On-Line

I am a new iphone AT&T user. Last time we were on St. John, people said exactly what flip flop's unsolicited advisor said in her trip report: "Don't use your phone, the fees will kill you!"

So what is the answer? Are phone minutes on St. John just part whatever package you have--and is ST. John treated as US? Is texting treated the same or differently? I am still not clear. Thanks anybody who knows the answer! We will be on island soon.

And what about people calling from the US to St. John. We stayed at Concordia Eco-Tents last year, so the phone thing was not part of our experience. Is there a special prefix or something you need to dial like when out of country? There is an answering machine in our villa and would love to give the family a number is possible. Thanks!

Don't have a lot of answers for you, as I don't have an Iphone, but will tell you what I know..
1. When calling St. John from US, you just dial as you would for any long distance 1-(area code)-(phone number).
2. Call AT&T and have them turn your roaming off for internet, etc. Also ask them if STJ is treated as any other US destination, or if you need to have an international plan put on for the dates you will be at STJ. It is really cheap. I would start with calling AT&T..they will have all the info for you

AT&T works just like in states, phone minutes part of regular package. I don't know if its a 3G connection though? But, alot of villas have wifi, you could connect through that, if you want to surf on your iphone.

Dialing from states to STJ land line is long distance call, just like in states. Dial 1 and area code. Its better for them to call your cell, no charge for that if its cell to cell, right?

Coverage on STJ is spotty depending on where you are. Our place up high in the hills near Ajax picks up great, down near Trunk, not so great...Cruz Bay isn't an issue as I recall, and Coral was ok too.

USVIs are covered in AT&Ts plan, As an Iphone user, had no problem as long as I was in sight of STT. We stayed at a villa in chocolate hole area, so had full bars of 3g coverage in the villa. BUT, when we would travel to the other side of the island, Maho/Catherineberg/Leinster/Coral bay You would lose ATT coverage and pick up Tortola Cell Coverage, CCT Boatphone? You would get a notification that you were outside the roaming area, and you would be incurring additional fees if you used data.

Our first trip we received a call where we happened to pick up the CCT boatphone network (unknowingly, luckily it was a 3 min call @ $3 a minute)

I would recommend that you turn off the Data Roaming button (settings > general > network). If you are planning on heading over the other side of the island for the day.

Where are you staying?

at Reef Madness. Stay mostly on beaches on Coral Bay side and North Shore beaches... Thanks for the tips folks!

STJ/STT is part of AT&T's Nationwide Plan. They do not charge for roaming in the USVI.

If you are on the North shore (Maho, Waterlemon, etc...)you may pick up the tower from the BVI. I had some calls which were charged last year but they removed the charges when I called and told them I was on St. John and not in the BVI's.

Texting charges (if you don't have an unlimited plan) are the same because you are still in the US.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Pia! I have family that is constantly in what they perceive as crisis and texting seems to be the method of choice to put out fires.

Yes, AT&T and Sprint are the two providers where you will not be charged extra fees here as long as you are on their networks. Verizon, T-Mobile, etc. users will automatically be roaming.

iPhones are becoming very popular here. There is pretty good AT&T 3G coverage over most of the island. In fact, I find my data speeds here are actually better than when I travel stateside, possibly due to fewer people using the same amount of bandwidth.

Just watch out for roaming when you are on the North Shore or East End, as well as points between Coral Bay and Salt Pond. If your network is not AT&T (it may say "LIME" or "DIGICELL" or something else), that means you're on the BVIs or BoatPhone network. You'll get charged an extraordinary amount for any calls, texts, or data on this network; you can easily call and get the charges removed, but that's one more thing to bother about.

Enjoy your trip!

If you have an iPhone and find yourself outside of AT&T's network, you might want to turn data roaming off. Some email programs and apps "push" data to your iPhone. In short, you could incur data charges even though you did not make an outgoing call or initiate access to the internet.

To turn data roaming off, go to: settings/general/network/data roaming...slide the switch to "off"

YES, Iphone works on both islands. 3g is really good too. In St. John's northside, you may pick up CC BOATPHONE (BVI international).

I would recommend that you turn off the Data Roaming button (settings > general > network). If you are planning on heading over the other side of the island for the day.

OR, when you get your bill and the try to charge you by mistake. CALL them up an tell them-- they will take the charges off.