Cingular service in the Eastern Caribbean???

[P.A.]

Cingular customers~Has anyone used their cell phone(GSM phones) in St Thomas, St Marten or Princess Cays and had luck with the service? Also have you gotten your bill yet to see what the charges were? I have the nationwide plan but was told that there would still be a roaming charge of $1.29-$1.79 per min. Anyone know?

 

Thanks! :)

 

Just 12 more days! Yippee :)

[wrp96]

I had no problem using my phone in St. Thomas since it's in the US. There were no roaming charges billed there. St. Maarten you have to have International Calling added to your phone to use it but I was able to call there. It would depend on which plan you have what the charges would be.

[SoFloDeb]

I didn't have service in St. Maarten, but as the last poster state, we had service in St. Thomas. No charges for roaming that I could see. My customer service rep said to call and ask for Worldwide service if we want to use it in St. Maarten.

[barbarah33]

I have the same information on my Cingular phone - no roaming charges in St. Thomas as it is a US territory. I have a plan with a one-time charge per month for any roaming I might do so I can't comment on how much it costs me to make a call from St. Martin with the roaming. I can say that calling was no problem but I did get hit with International charges. I have never tried my phone in Princess Cays.

[sanemb]

Not sure about St Maarten, but used our cell phone (cingular nationwide long distance), in St Thomas and San Juan. We just got our bill, just took away from our monthly free minutes, no roaming charges..

[Colo Cruiser]

I used my Cingular phone in St Thomas in August on the Crown cruise, it showed Cingular service on the phone but the call prices on my bill were outrageous. I don't remember exactly how much but I won't do that again. :eek:

[FamilyGuy1010]

I used my Cingular phone in St Thomas in August on the Crown cruise, it showed Cingular service on the phone but the call prices on my bill were outrageous. I don't remember exactly how much but I won't do that again. :eek:

 

If you have one of the Cingular Nation plans, then making calls in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands (St Thomas, St Croix and St John) are treated the same way as on the US mainland. I have used my cell phone in all these places and never incurred a roaming charge.

 

Princess Cays is in the Bahamas. Assuming you can get cell service there, it won't be considered local.

[PescadoAmarillo]

Even if Cingular shows service in Eastern Caribbean ports, whether or not you actually have service on your Cingular phone depends on whether you have a dual-, tri- or quad-band phone. The cell phone systems in many (non-US) Caribbean islands operate on a different frequency than the 850 MHz or 1900 MHz that are used in the US. A quad-band phone (such as the Razor phone) will have service in the most places. Of course, whether or not you want to pay the going rates (sometimes more than $3.00 a minute) is a different matter. And our calls from PR and the USVI have always been included in our Cingular one rate plan (i.e. no extra charge).

 

Also, you don't have to ask for worldwide service to get service on the islands (assuming your phone operates on that island's frequency)...it may be a bit cheaper per minute, but unless you plan to do a lot of calling over an extended period of time, it probably isn't worth it to sign up for one of those plans. We did it for Mexico once when we were going to be there quite a bit over a 3 month period of time, and we forgot to cancel it when we got back, and ended up paying for the Mexico plan for a few extra months. It would have been cheaper to just pay the higher rate per minute (and we all know just how easy it is to get hold of a live person at Cingular these days to make those changes ;) ).

 

Also, I don't recall that we even had service at Princess Cays (and we have a quad-band phone).

[okbowler]

On our stop last year at St Thomas & St. John we evidently had our signal picked up by a cell tower that was considered international and were charged roaming charges, eventho we were in the USVI. Cingular removed the charges, which were small. They said that there is an icon on the phone screen when roaming . I cant swear to that since I have never thought to look for it, since I thought I was in US territority. okbowler

[Pam in CA]

With Cingular, you can pay $5.99 to add international roaming to your cell phone service plan for the month. It's then $.99/minute to call anywhere in the U.S.

 

I was just on a two-week riverboat cruise in Russia and did exactly that. I had cell phone service everywhere, including on pastoral rivers and Kizhi island.

[TexasMom2]

We did the same, $5.99 for international dialing, and even had service in the middle of nowhere (Cingular at sea). It was a shock to get a call from my son between Cayman and Cozumel.

[TinaLee]

Just looking at my phone bills from this year -

 

In February I called home from St. Thomas, no extra charges. Called from the BVI - St. Martin and Tortola - and there were roaming charges. Called from the Bahamas, and there were roaming charges. I paid about $1.99 a minute for roaming in those 3 ports.

 

In April I called home from St. Thomas and again there were no extra charges. Tried to call home from St. Martin, but couldn't get a good connection that day (overcast and rainy).

[cjh]

I have been able to call from San Juan, St. Thomas and Tortola with no roaming. I get a recorded message in St. Maarten that say's emergency only.

[MauiLvrs]

Check this out....

http://onlinestorez.cingular.com/travelguide/coverage/roaming/step1.jsp

[steve20832]

Check this out....

http://onlinestorez.cingular.com/travelguide/coverage/roaming/step1.jsp

 

Seems their website is as bad as their service.

I'm saying that because my girlfriend has Cingular and can never talk more than 10 minutes without the call dropping. They told her to get a new phone(new as of a month ago) so she did and the calls still drop. She lives in a big city and it tends to drop more on the interstate more than the backroads. Her contract is almost up, thank goodness!

 

 

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