perthamina
New Member
Does anyone know which sim card is the best and cheapest for calls to uk from antigua/caribbean. We will be cruising down to trinidad so do not want to buy lots of cards. will one work in most of the islands? thanks
re sim cards in caribbean/antigua
- Thread starter perthamina
- Start date
snowleopard
Well-Known Member
They may be catching up now - my info is about 4 years out of date - but there were virtually no digital phone connections in the Lesser Antilles when I was there so the only option was to get a phone locally. The problem with that was that inter-island roaming was not available on pay-as-you-go and monthly billing was no good for liveaboards.
I'm sure someone can update that info.
I'm sure someone can update that info.
tcm
...
If a UK phone works in france then it works on or near french islands like martinique or Guadaloupe with no adjustments.
bbilly
Well-Known Member
I was in the grenadines at Xmas and all the boat boys had mobiles. Quite surprised really, or they were rich or it must be quite economical.
jeremyshaw
Well-Known Member
No sim cards work in all the islands. Basically each has their own - even a C&W card for one island won't work in another. Exception is the French islands where Orange Antilles will work in all the French islands.
So you either have to buy the cards - Digicell is often good value - or use a UK billing roaming mobile (handset must be triband, quad to include Venezuela). The cards are generally not hugely expensive - about $20 with some airtime, but that does add up... Sometimes you can 'borrow' or buy them from or flog them onto other cruisers.
Wifi is coming in pretty quickly and it would be worth setting up a Skype account and getting headset/mike etc. before you go - you can certainly use that in St. Martin, Grenada and Trinidad and maybe other places by the time you get there. SkypeIn seems to work pretty well too - my wife is on our boat in Venezuela and I have a London number assigned to SkypeIn so I can call here there as a local call. Skype international to landline is 2.5ppm. Call quality is variable though.
So you either have to buy the cards - Digicell is often good value - or use a UK billing roaming mobile (handset must be triband, quad to include Venezuela). The cards are generally not hugely expensive - about $20 with some airtime, but that does add up... Sometimes you can 'borrow' or buy them from or flog them onto other cruisers.
Wifi is coming in pretty quickly and it would be worth setting up a Skype account and getting headset/mike etc. before you go - you can certainly use that in St. Martin, Grenada and Trinidad and maybe other places by the time you get there. SkypeIn seems to work pretty well too - my wife is on our boat in Venezuela and I have a London number assigned to SkypeIn so I can call here there as a local call. Skype international to landline is 2.5ppm. Call quality is variable though.