Caribbean mobiles . . .

webcraft

webcraft

Well-Known Member
Joined
8 Jul 2001
Messages
40,424
Location
Cyberspace
www.bluemoment.com
Can you buy an unlocked mobile in the Caribbean? Or - can someone unlock one for you? (I presume you can buy a Nokia at least and buy the unlock codes off the web?)

The reason I ask is that my snazzy new(er) Ericson T630 is the only triband phone we have on board, and it now refuses to believe it has a SIM in it.

- Nick
 
As I recall, the islands use a unique baud rate. At least they did when we were there last (2003) and my Motorola tri-band wouldn't work. Checked it out and was told I'd have to buy a 'local' phone.

May have changed of course now as I know a lot of locals, including several of our friends who live there, were mighty fed up at the time
 
Dose this have anything to do with 4 band phones????Ive no idea for where the 4th bands ment!!

Do you use your SSB? Why not post your frequency and schedual? Perhaps the forum could stay in touch?Or tty a weekly? call to anyone "scutelbut scutelbut"QSL???
 
Everything has changed dramatically re mobile phones here in Barbados (and the other islands) in the past few years.

As far as I know, all UK mobiles will now work out here.
When I was in England in September I bought a basic Motorola phone (pre-paid) for GBP 40, using the orange network. Calls in England on it were (I think) 10p/min to other orange mobiles, 25p/min to landlines, and 35p/min to other mobiles.

If I use it out here, it costs GBP 1.75/min to make a call to the UK, and GBP 1.00/min to receive calls, while text messages are 50p to send to anywhere, and free to receive.

Re my local phone here, I only have a very plain and simple Nokia (an 1100 I think) which will make and receive phone calls and texts locally and overseas (including to / from England). I bought it about 6 months ago, and it cost about GBP 25 to buy from Cable and Wireless.
If you are planning on spending some time in the Windies, I think it would be well worth while acquiring a local phone. Although you will still have to pay extra roaming charges if you use it in say St Vincent and it was bought / registered in Barbados, never mind that they are only 100 miles apart.
But even the roaming charges are reasonable.
My local phone is post paid (I get a bill each month), and it costs me about 30p per minute to phone the UK with it, while texts to the UK from here are 10p each (to send and receive).
I think the rates using a pre-paid card might be slightly higher, while if I roam around the Caribbean, the cost of phoning the UK goes up quite a lot.
 
Earlier this year bought SIM in St Lucia which didn't work in St Vincent and Grenadines, a different SIM in Bequia and a whole new phone in Antigua (even though it was really cheap as Cable and Wireless worried about new operator starting up). None of it was terribly expensive to buy and allowed incoming calls without a fee...however it does mean only your very dearest friends and relatives bother to keep up with your number changes!
 
Re: Why buy a phone

[ QUOTE ]
Unlocking a phone, locking has been condemned by EC Commission

[/ QUOTE ]

Well that will have the operators quaking in their boots - Not!

The only thing which will move the various operators away from their attempts to captivate their market, and continue to charge well inflated prices for calls and data, is competitive pressure.

Once one operator decides to reduce the costs of various elements of the service, others will have no choice other than to follow.

e.g. T-Mobiles Web n Walk provides unlimited use of data, (fair usage etc), in a variety of ways dependent on the contract, (even PAYG data is only £1 per day unlimited), so others will be looking for ways to compete.

If one operator decided to provide unlocked phones, the others would follow, (and all would say that they were following the Commissions guidelines - b*llox!).
 
Re: Why buy a phone

We have successfully used Spanish and Portuguese SIMs . . . however, most Caribbean countries use a different bandwidth which older European phones don;t operate on.
 
I think you\'ll find

they're already getting into line.

Contract (either tariff or PAYG) has to be for a fixed period, usually 18 months, and can only be applied to phones that are demonstrably at a below-market price. At the end of the period they have to unlock the phone for free.

Commencement date varies from supplier to supplier, but deadline in Feb 2007.

The interesting result is that SIM-free phones have dropped dramatically in price (I bought a Nokia E70 @ £223 in July).
 
Yes

you will need a triband phone, they're in line with the States.

Still triband phones have been available since early 2003.

I've still got a pre-GSM Panasonic as well as a single band Nokia, but all phones need replacement after about 3 years when battery and contacts start going.
 
Re: Yes

[ QUOTE ]
you will need a triband phone, they're in line with the States.



[/ QUOTE ]

As I posted earlier, unless things have changed, a tri-band won't work in the islands because their bandwidth is peculiar to them. The only option we were given, having tried local SIM cards etc, was to buy a 'local' phone. We declined!
 
Re: Yes

I'm off to Eustatius, (Statia), for a weeks scuba diving in January. From what I can tell, they also have their own network, and "outsiders" phones wont work.

Wont matter for a week...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top