...may well be your best option. The island nations thru-out the
Caribbean have been going thru a deregulation process for some years now but, at least in 2000-2002, were not integrating their newly privatized systems, island nation to island nation. So if you go cell, you'll be reregistering (add'l fees) and dealing with multiple vendors as you move upisland. Ugh.
You imply you are moving FROM Trinidad towards the French Is. If that's true, I'd recommend you do your Sat Comm
shopping in Chaguaramas. A German ex-pat there had a good shop with all the handheld sat systems available. His prices were quite impressive, at least in late 2001. I remember him walking me thru a typical full-season sat vs. cell fee schedule and, presuming reasonable call levels, the sat system was comparable without all the hassles. As I
recall, his firm's name is Electropics (you'll find that
phone number and many another vendor at the Boca website -
http://www.boatersenterprise.com/the_boca/) but I can't be certain.
Were I you, I would call the YSATT folks (their
email, web and phone numbers are at
http://www.boatersenterprise.com/whitepages/ysatt.htm) and ask them for referrals to the correct vendors. You can begin
shopping right away, if time is an issue for you.
Jack