USVI-On-Line

Has anyone got experience(s) to share about using an iPhone on St. John? iPhone works with our local Cingular/ATT service, but iPhone is not for sale down here. I am considering buying one stateside to use in the VI.

Sloop Jones

Would love an iphone also. I do know ATT/Cingular works great on STJ. In some locations you end up using BVI signals, so check your bill & call them to say you never left STJ. They will take off those charges. Otherwise no charge in USVI

It was nice meeting you at your shop this May. I used my Iphone in Coral Bay with no problems including using the Edge network. I understand that AT&T will be upgrading the network to 3G in the USVI in 2008. You may still have a hard time finding an Iphone. My son has been waiting for a couple of days to get his from the local AT&T shop.

BTW, here's a picture of your cat and a view from your entrance that I like.


My daughter and wife are enjoying their shirts we bought from you. Tell Betsy, hello from Mississippi. We plan to be back in January.

DELETED

I do believe that Captain Jay has an iphone and uses it down there now that he's living there. One of the Bongo guys has one too, I think. I remember reading about it on On-StJohn.com when he first got it. Hopefully one of them will chime in, but from what I can tell they seem to be doing OK with them, even posting on their blogs once in a while.

The hubs was looking into this recently and was surprised to find (at least according to ATT) that the reception is better and stronger on the Coral Bay side. YAY, me on picking that side for this trip & the next

I know Vicki used hers while on island and she stayed in the Francis Bay area.

Mine actually worked ON Francis Beach. How do I know that? I am addicted. I have a problem. I am big enough to admit that.

ours worked on all the Northshore beaches, in Cruz Bay, and at Vie's beach. No problems anywhere.

I am sitting at Beach Walk right on the waters edge at Chocolate Hole writi g this reply on my iPhone. Works great.

Hubbys' iPhone worked great - even in Coral Bay. My in-laws were able to get ahold of us wherever we went

ccasebolt wrote:Hubbys' iPhone worked great - even in Coral Bay. My in-laws were able to get ahold of us wherever we went

Mine worked just about everywhere with no problems. But, as usual, just watch out for the silly Boatphone signal. I just had a lovely, passioned argument with AT&T today asking them to kindly remove the BVI charges from my bill.

One night in Cruz Bay, though, I pulled out my phone to use it and it just totally tripped out and went black. A girl standing next to me said a couple of her friends have had the same trouble with their iPhones "tripping out" down there. We were right near St. John Spice so I just ran up and asked to plug it into the charger real quick. It reset itself in about 3 seconds and no problems since. I just thought it was strange that someone recognized the "tripping out" of the iPhone in Cruz Bay. Then again, it wouldn't be the first thing to trip out in Cruz Bay, I guess.

I wonder if that "tripping out" is a Cingular problem? My phone (a Motorola, not an iPhone) did the same thing standing on the ferry dock. It just stopped working. I thought it was broken and freaked out a little, but when I got to the villa later, I plugged it in and it was back to normal. I figured it was my POS phone, but now I'm thinking maybe not...

Last time I went, I didn't get any roaming charges for the BVIs, and I know I used their towers. They did, however, charge me 30 cents a minute for any calls made to the 340 area code. That's bizarre to me, as calls to the Virgin Islands were always covered before. I'll have to check on that before I go back.

The new iPhone with 3G service have a pretty flakey radio stack that has been causing a lot of problems. My Blackberry and ATT/Cingular data card have been rock solid on STJ.

Cheers, RickG

Deb actually has the iPhone, I am to rough on phones. She has the first generation that uses the Edge network and works fine on both islands, any place that there is ATT signal. We frequently post directly to the blog from the phone. Snap a picture type in the text and email it to Blogger. I know Josh from Lion In Da Sun has one now as well, and even got his 340 area code on it. As for the second generation with the 3G network I don't have any first hand knowledge of the system here and whether it is up and running yet. I also don't know if the new phone is back wards compatible with the edge network if there is no 3G. I have to warn you that the thing is addictive, there is a line in a Buffett song "crackberries" and this is just about right.
Jay

PS This picture was taken this morning of Deb's new car and posted to Flickr for the blog from the phone.