Cell Phone Coverage on STJ

[Teresa_Rae]

I've searched the forum and all the info about which providers work well on STJ was over a year old so I wanted to see if anything has changed.

Is AT&T still the best option on St. John? Our contract has been up for awhile and we're thinking of changing providers (we currently have T-Mobile).

We vacation often enough on STJ that we will partially base our decision on what works well there.

We'd like to switch to Verizon, but my understanding is that it sucks on STJ and when it does work it's $2/minute.

But where we live AT&T gets mixed reviews and some people have trouble getting a signal with them, including our neighbors who live 1/2 mile up the road from us.

[AquaGirl]

We have found Verizon coverage to be spotty, at best, and non-existent in some places on the island. There is a chance of picking up a signal from Tortola and getting charged for roaming, unless you turn off roaming. We have Verizon for our cell phones, since it provides the best coverage for our area, but we don't use them on island. Our solution was to buy an inexpensive go-phone, get an AT&T sim card and load it up with $20 worth of minutes. We use it on the island and have pretty decent coverage. If you need more minutes, you can easily add them. We give this phone number to our family so they can reach us, since the Verizon phones may or may not work.

[Teresa_Rae]

Can you tell me more about how the go-phone works?

Is there a monthly charge? Or do you only pay the $20 each time you go to STJ?

I see that there is a $2/day option, and it says you're charged only on days you use the phone. Does this mean I can buy a $20 go-phone, use it for a couple weeks at $2/day, and then not use it again, until, say, a year later?

[JJShaw]

We used an ATT GO phone a cpl yrs ago and we were only charged the days we used it...no contract...just when your out...you have to buy more...I think we were with ATT at the time and didnt want to chance roaming fees.. we had an extra phone and didnt have to buy one just the sim card which came with the minutes..or daily dollar amount...the last 2 times we have been..we have been not taking our Go phone but we have Alltel and had about the same signal as Att. Staying at Cinnamon Bay we were at times roaming off the BVI...and the time kept changing from hour to hour..now..with that said...we did not make any calls...only sent text...I was scared we would get an outrageous bill when we got back because I was there a few days before I turned off roaming...but it was just a normal bill..Att is awful here for us...I wouldnt use it again here if I had too..I couldnt wait til our contract was up...I shut the phones off the same day..
But if you have an ATT phone...it should have a sim card...Id just buy the 20.00 fee (sim card) and use that..and get the one that gives you the best service at home...

[Fisheye]

We have Verizon, but for our trip (sat)! I bought a 19.00 AT&T go phone , and 25.00 credit.
They let me choose from several available phone numbers. Each day that I use the phone will deduct 2.00 from the 25.00 balance ---that is unlimited text and.calling that day for 2.00.
No use,no charge.i can call a number to reload the balance. I can forward my iPhone number to that number, too. If I don't wanna miss any calls at all.( but I won't do this).
I believe if I don't use it for 90 days, the number expires and il
Have to get a new one if I want to use again. No activation fees at anytime, tho.

[Jeff&Cindy]

Last January we bought an AT&T Go Phone for our trip to STJ. I think it was $25 for the phone, then we put $25 credit on the phone. I think that was the minimum you can put on it. (even though @ $2/day we only needed $14 for a week on STJ) And I believe the credits expire if you don't use them within a certain amount of time. I haven't touched the phone since we've been home, but notice that my on-line account is no longer active. I'm hoping we can just reactivate and put another $25 on it for our next trip.

[islandmom]

I've used Verizon on STJ and had no problems until I get too far East...Coral Bay area.

[PA Girl]

For years we had Nextel, which didn't work in the VIs, and now Verizon. I always took a back up ATT GO phone. You can get one for basically free on their site if you purchase $25 worth of air time. We don't have a great need for cell service down there and it worked fine for us.

This last trip, my husband called Verizon and had us switched to international plan for a month and I think it cost $30. We have a commercial account so maybe that is why it was so reasonable.

[mlr214]

We have ATT here at home and didn't have any problems using our phones across island. We had best service in cruz bay and north shore beaches.
We stayed in Coral bay and sometimes we noticed we had a different carrier show up on phone but it really depended on where we were. When we got home we had about $20 of misc charges. I called prior to leaving and was told by ATT USVI are included in plan. I've read here that you can call and get charges removed if they happen to accumulate while on your trip but we didn't bother since it was only $20 for us. We were just careful to look prior to calling to make sure we were on ATT but overall had no real problems.

[JohnM]

We have Verizon, and used our smartphones in STJ on our recent trip.

Beforehand, I confirmed w/ Verizon the applicable rates. $2 p/m for outgoing cell calls. No issues with texting or data, as we have the Unlimited Plan.

Once we were there. No problems at first. Then later, got alerts that we were exceeding Verizon Global rates. (We did Jost one day, but never went farther east than Maho.) Called Verizon Global, and they confirmed that we could ignore the alerts.

Well, got home, and in our first wireless bill after our trip, we got hammered. $200 over our normal wireless bill.

Called VW to complain, and after Verizon Global did some research, they agreed to waive the excess charges. It appears that Verizon had us using data from Jamaica … yes, JAMAICA!! Once the Verizon CR looked at our usage, she agreed that it would be impossible for us to be in STJ one day, Jamaica another, and back to STJ for the 3rd. (I suspect some type of rogue cellphone tower around Trunk Bay, although Trunk is generally a dead cell zone.)

Bottom line is, that if you’re a Verizon user, be alert to any weird messages on your phone. And promptly call Verizon if anything seems out of order. It helps to bolster your case later if you complained to them as soon as you thought something was out of order w/ your service.

PS> May help if you turn off Data on your phone until you're in a secure location. We didn't do that. Duh!

[CBama]

We have AT&T phone as had service pretty much all over island except Lamashur.

We stayed on the Coral Bay side and did pull off the British Virgin Islands tower while we were on that side of the island toward Salt Pond and driving back to Coral Bay..

service would be slower than normal..would take a long time to upload a picture to facebook at some places.

I did call AT&T prior to our visit. Someone called me back to verify we did not have any international charges...but when I got my bill it was over $100 more than normal. so i called and he researched a few minutes...and then credited me for around 125.

We had 4g service several places on island.

[onthelake]

Hi everyone,
I have Sprint (we stay at Cruz Views) and I get better reception at the condo on St John than at home.
Over the years I've found several places on island with good reception(ie Cruz bay town, Francis beach, Skinny's etc) and only turn my phone on when I'm at those places... Otherwise it is roaming.
Never had any extra charges.

Pam

[Teresa_Rae]

5+ years ago we had Sprint and it worked great on STJ but I got angry with them when they treated me worse than they'd treat a new customer. My faulty phone, that they sold me, broke after a year and they wouldn't cut me a deal on a new phone, that was a perk they reserved for new customers. I'd been loyal to Sprint for several years at that point so after that I gave them the heave ho for having poor customer service.

It looks like I'm getting a GoPhone from AT&T. Hopefully it will work for years to come of STJ vacations.

In the past I haven't cared about having a working phone on STJ but we are leaving our toddler with family at home so I need to be reachable on island.