US Virgin Islands

[Carroll]

Am planning a trip to St. John, USVI in the next week. Do I need "world coverage" or will my regular plan suffice?

[COtech]

If you could offer your carrier's name, (plan,) and handset, we would have something to work with.

COtech

[Carroll]

Sorry. My carrier is Verison and my phone is a Blackberry. Not sure of the model.

[COtech]

Carroll, it looks expensive at $1.99/minute in the U. S. Virgin Islands per VZW's web page.

"You must add the International Dialing feature (I-Dial) to your account before you leave the U.S. in order to be able to roam using your existing phone in any international destination other than Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Guam, Jamaica, Saipan, and the United States Virgin Islands. I-Dial eligibility restrictions apply."

So you won't need International Dialing in the USVI.

COtech

[mrcamp]

Too bad. Verizon is the only major US carrier that I am aware of that does not include USVI as part of normal minutes.

Originally Posted by Carroll

Sorry. My carrier is Verison and my phone is a Blackberry. Not sure of the model.

[Kuhbie]

I just came back from USVI and verizon is the only US carrier that does not include USVI in natiowide minutes. I used a friends Sprint phone and minutes were as in US. Along with nights and weekend free. The next time I go to the USVI , I will buy, a pay as you go AT&T phone. AT&T has very good coverage in the USVI. CDMA (verizon) covewerage is good in the USVI and I don't know why verizon treats the USVI as a foreign country. wake up verizon and include the usvi as you do the PR in your nationwide calling plan. By the way the rate to use your verizon phone is $1.99 per minute.

[Gamer03]

I was in the USVI last July and AT&T was the only carrier working. We stayed on the east side of St. John (Coral Bay) and it was a hit or miss with AT&T. There is only one tower on the island and unless you are in one of the "sweet spots", your phone will be picking up a signal from the BVI and you will be roaming at $3.49/minute. Lucky for us the house that we rented was high above the road and had a line of sight to the one tower on St. John.
BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.216 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102 UP.Link/6.3.1.20.0

[SteveW]

Originally Posted by Gamer03

I was in the USVI last July and AT&T was the only carrier working. We stayed on the east side of St. John (Coral Bay) and it was a hit or miss with AT&T.

OK, but as you know, you were in the most undeveloped part of the most undeveloped island in the USVI, 75% of which is national park. The population of Coral Bay, according to Wikipedia, is 649. Not to make light of your predicament, but most people go to St. John because it is "unspoiled". I trust that you had a nice time, otherwise. I was only there for an afternoon (in Cruz Bay and Caneel Bay) and I don't remember checking the wireless signal (silly me).

I spent more time on St. Thomas (March, 2007) and I can say that the Verizon signal is fine in and around Charlotte Amalie, as you would expect. I was all over the island (Great Bay, Red Hook, Magen's Bay) and don't remember a signal problem. At the time, I wasn't too worried about per minute voice charges, as I was mainly using data on a company Blackberry.

Of course, none of this helps the OP, who asked his question last November (2008).


SW

[Gamer03]

Originally Posted by SteveW

OK, but as you know, you were in the most undeveloped part of the most undeveloped island in the USVI, 75% of which is national park. The population of Coral Bay, according to Wikipedia, is 649. Not to make light of your predicament, but most people go to St. John because it is "unspoiled". I trust that you had a nice time, otherwise. I was only there for an afternoon (in Cruz Bay and Caneel Bay) and I don't remember checking the wireless signal (silly me).

I spent more time on St. Thomas (March, 2007) and I can say that the Verizon signal is fine in and around Charlotte Amalie, as you would expect. I was all over the island (Great Bay, Red Hook, Magen's Bay) and don't remember a signal problem. At the time, I wasn't too worried about per minute voice charges, as I was mainly using data on a company Blackberry.

Of course, none of this helps the OP, who asked his question last November (2008).


SW

That is why we stayed on St. John. It was less crowded and we had a great time. The wireless signals were not too much of a problem since the scenery more than made up for the "inconvenience". St. Thomas was nice but too crowded. We flew into there nonstop from Miami. It was around a 2 hour and 40 minute flight. We then took the ferry over to St. John and stayed there for 10 days.
BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.216 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102 UP.Link/6.3.1.20.0

[Shizam76]

Originally Posted by Gamer03

I was in the USVI last July and AT&T was the only carrier working. We stayed on the east side of St. John (Coral Bay) and it was a hit or miss with AT&T. There is only one tower on the island and unless you are in one of the "sweet spots", your phone will be picking up a signal from the BVI and you will be roaming at $3.49/minute. Lucky for us the house that we rented was high above the road and had a line of sight to the one tower on St. John.
BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.216 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102 UP.Link/6.3.1.20.0

We stayed at the Westin in 2007 when we went....and we had weak signal inside our room...and it got way better has we head to the bay (I forget what bay the Westin is on) Calls were not very good from inside the room. Most times if we had to take a call...we went out onto the patio. I didn't know there was only 1 tower on the whole island??

[SteveW]

Originally Posted by Shizam76

We stayed at the Westin in 2007 when we went....and we had weak signal inside our room...and it got way better has we head to the bay (I forget what bay the Westin is on) Calls were not very good from inside the room. Most times if we had to take a call...we went out onto the patio. I didn't know there was only 1 tower on the whole island??

That would be Great Cruz Bay on the more populated (West) side. Gamer was on the other side.

Westin St. John



SW

[Gamer03]

Originally Posted by Shizam76

We stayed at the Westin in 2007 when we went....and we had weak signal inside our room...and it got way better has we head to the bay (I forget what bay the Westin is on) Calls were not very good from inside the room. Most times if we had to take a call...we went out onto the patio. I didn't know there was only 1 tower on the whole island??

Well there might be more, but I only saw one tower that I knew that had AT&T on it. If there were other towers on the island, they had foreign carriers on them. St. John is only nine miles long and three miles wide. After traveling on the west side of the island, north side, and northeast/east side (where we stayed) the signal strength in all of those places was on par with only one tower on the island. The nearby BVI had towers that covered most of St. John with $3.49/minute cell phone coverage.

[Gamer03]

Originally Posted by SteveW

That would be Great Cruz Bay on the more populated (West) side. Gamer was on the other side.

Westin St. John



SW

That is correct Steve. We rented a place close to the northeastern tip of the island.