Cell Phone in Exumas and other Bahamas points.

[PetePetePete]

I'm trying to get some more current information on cell phone service in the Bahamas. I currently have MetroPCS (I think owned by T-Mobile).

Is this something that works in the Bahamas? What are my options. Mostly looking for the ability to call up a marina and get status on fuel or dockage if I can't get via VHF.

Internet would be great, but I have to think that's not cheap...

Talk to me.

Thanks!
Pete

[1affiah]

BTC Bahamas

You need an unlocked cell phone & buy a btc chip & data plan. The website will tell you where you can buy the chip in person, and basic coverage info. The service is pretty good in most places. Tether the phone to your laptop with hotspot.

[Geek_Guy]

CHeck AT&T. Looks like they have solid roaming through the entire Bahamas.

[jcapo]

You can roam with some carriers in the Bahamas if you have really deep pockets. But a BTC sim card will be much cheaper. Any Island that has a customs office will have a BTC office.

$30 or so a month gets you a couple of gigs of data service.

[Group9]

Most carriers roam in the Bahamas. I know our Verizon phone worked there. I also know when we saw our first bill we made a rule that we would use nothing but the Bahamian phone we bought in Nassau from then on!

[nautical62]

In the Abacos, I could get a cell connection almost everywhere. The Carter's Cays and Stranger's being about the only places I couldn't. As I recall, coverage was a bit spottier in the Exumas but still fairly good overall.

Whether to pay roaming with a U.S. plan or invest in a Bahamas plan and phone/sim card depends on how much you will be using your phone. If you will be making only a few calls for a few minutes each, it may be cheaper to simply use your U.S. phone and plan. I liked being able to get the weather on my smart phone when out VHF forecast areas for several days.

Receiving a text was only 5 cents and sending one 50 cents a couple years ago on my international plan.

One year, I bought a Bahamas phone. Another year I got my iPhone unlocked, but could never get a Bahamas SIM card to work in it. That was quite the waste.

A few restaurants and coffee houses have free internet for customer's. Buying a couple beers while using free internet made more sense to me than paying the same price for internet without the beer. Pay internet was also very limited as to location.

Many marinas and businesses monitor the VHF, so you can avoid many phone calls that way.

[Vasco]

If you're just looking for dockage and fuel vhf is the way to go. They all still monitor vhf and not too many years ago the vhf was the telephone and still is in some spots.

[PetePetePete]

Thanks folks! I have an unlocked iPhone 5 that currently is on the MetroPCS network. Is there any specific "thing" I can look for on my phone to see if it'll work well with the Bahamas card you guys are talking about?

Thanks,
Pete

[kcj]

Did the exumas to abacos last year. We used an Unlocked iPhone 5s with a SIM card from btc via mrsimcard. This year it's $50 for 7gb of data. It goes fast. Top up online via btc. We had no issues with coverage in the abacos and Eleuthera and most Of the exumas. (Save periodic post storm issues ) There were places near wardrick wells were service was marginal at best. We used the iPhone as a hotspot for the other devices on the boat. Do be careful about shutting down all auto updates and I learned to shut the phones off when xing between islands as the data just seemed to disappear...

[Geek_Guy]

AT&T has a international plan. For 40 dollars per month you get 200mg data, calls are like 1 dollar per minute, and unlimited texting.

https://www.att.com/offers/internati.../passport.html

Coverage map shows coverage of all but an edge of a few islands in Bahamas and Turks, Domincian Republic, then BVI and on.

[sailjumanji]

As one person suggested, you can contact the marinas for info by using your VHF.

As far as telephone service, we spent two months last year, working down thru Bimini, Berry Islands, and the Exumas. Signed up for Sprint Global Roaming prior to the trip. In addition to our regular US plan costs, we made voice calls for $0.20 per minute, and had free unlimited texting, and free 3G data service. We had good reception everywhere except in the Land and Sea Park - where there are no Batelco towers (so no one else gets reception their either). Regardless of the horror stories people had, we were charged nothing else. We had Sprint unlock our phones prior to departure just in case of problems with the Global Roaming Plan, then we could get the Batelco sim cards. Never bothered with sim cards.

We were shocked at how much connectivity we had, and how cheap. It was most times better reception than I get at my house in Port Aransas. 3G is not fast, and you won't be watching videos with it, but so what. It was free. Texting was as fast as it is in the states, including sending pictures.

I have no ties to Sprint. But was very happy with them on this trip. Why screw with trying to find a Batelco sim card? (Our friends went that route, and had to do a lot of walking around in Bimini to find someone with sim cards, and eventually gave up, waiting to get one in Georgetown!). And paying $0.99 per minute for Batelco? OTOH, if for some reason you need 4G service, not sure if Sprint could deliver that. But who goes to Bahamas to play on the internet!

[Matt Johnson]

Has anyone tried Google's Project FI yet? I'm not sure I want to spend the cash for one of their three usable phones, but with data in something like 135+ countries for a $10 bucks a GB, it seems like a good deal to not have to keep buying sim cards.

Matt

[amiller]

Originally Posted by funjohnson

Has anyone tried Google's Project FI yet?
Matt

I have! I was due for a new phone, and knowing that my future was taking me to the Carib I replaced my iPhone with a Pixel running Project Fi. I can't yet speak to the Exumas, but I'm here in Turks and Caicos right now. Free SMS and $10/Gig is tough to beat, and I'm connecting to LTE towers. Better than swapping SIM cards!

[makana]

I'm in the Exumas as I write this tethered to my iPhone 6 using a BaTelCo sim card. Sim card cost $20, 2Gig's data $7, $1/min calls to USA, free text from BTC customers, $0.50 for all other text, coverage is good.

[akprb]

AT&T 10.00 per day and uses your US data plan.

New, replaced the passport plans.