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Calling to USA from USVI

LisaRex

LisaRex

TUG Review Crew
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Location
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Resorts Owned
Used to own: WKORV-N; SVV - Bella
So, according to the Verizon rep, they do not have coverage on St. John. I know that we can email folks back home using our internet connection in our villa, but does anyone know a way to call back home without incurring international roaming rates?

I looked at a few international calling cards at Walgreens, but they require me to call an 800 number from the USA to anywhere else in the world, and not vice-versa.

So, how do my fellow Tuggers communicate to the people in the States?
 
When I took a cruise to the USVI, I used my Sprint cell phone. Its part of the US so no intl call. Just went against my normal minutes.
 
I have Verizon, so that's not an option. But thanks for the input.
 
AT&T and Sprint work. Verizon is roaming and expensive. I'm not sure about TMobile but I think that it maybe roaming as well. The wifi at WSJ is free so you can use Google Voice or Skype to call US mainland on Verizon.
 
Wonder if you get one of the pay as you go phones once on STT from their Kmart if you can use it to call the mainland?
 
Bringing an apple iPad 2
Will I have any problems? Want to use the chat feature back to mainland
 
Wireless service is historically very spotty/bad at the WSJ. Wired is generally more reliable and should support your chat feature.
 
The last 2 years several of us stayed at 3-br pool villas at WSJ. All of us had AT&T on various types of phones. Best reception - but still not very good - was at the beach. (Worked maybe 50% of the time with 2-3 bars.) Next best was at the top of the rise near the reception area facing the pool. Worst was at the pool villa. 95% of the time we had 0 bars (no service) at the villa. There was not much better reception in Cruz Bay than at the resort.

I don't know if there is better reception at the rest of the VG (Hillside) section as I've never stayed in those units up on the hill. The 3-br pool villas are on flat land nearer the hotel.

We all had data roaming turned off to avoid BVI roaming charges. I don't know if accepting the higher roaming charges helps with a better signal coming in from Tortola.

I found WIFI at WSJ to be unreliable, too. Sometimes it worked OK; other times not. ... eom
 
If you have a global phone (one that uses a SIM card), you might want to look at buying a SIM card from GOSIM.com. We use it when we travel out of the US; it's typically cheaper than using our regular cell phone provider (where coverage is available). If you don't have a global phone, you can get them cheap on Ebay; I got one for something like $25.
 
USVI is NOT outside the USA for cell phone purposes. Get a pay-as-you-go AT&T GoPhone if your Verizon HTML phone won't work there.

Jim
 
pharmgirl said:
Apple iPad is only wireless as far as I know no way to connect by wire
Click to expand...

Just get yourself an Apple Airport or similar device and connect your iPad (and any other wireless devices) to it, and you'll share the Ethernet wired connection in the villa. This is what I do when I go overseas whenever possible, and use skype or other VoIP app on my iPhone (not using cellular, and I avoid all the extra charges and have better reception).

It's not as hard as it sounds.
 
Ken555 said:
Just get yourself an Apple Airport or similar device and connect your iPad (and any other wireless devices) to it, and you'll share the Ethernet wired connection in the villa. This is what I do when I go overseas whenever possible, and use skype or other VoIP app on my iPhone (not using cellular, and I avoid all the extra charges and have better reception).

It's not as hard as it sounds.
Click to expand...

So I can bring a wireless modem of my own and it can use the wired connection and should be better than the Westin wireless?
 
If you have a smart phone, make sure you turn off your data roaming. When we were in areas of St John with a view of the BVI, we started getting messages from them. Informational stuff, like how to call from the British Virgin Islands, even though we were in the USVI.
 
pharmgirl said:
So I can bring a wireless modem of my own and it can use the wired connection and should be better than the Westin wireless?
Click to expand...

That's not what I wrote.
 
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