AirCards in Bahamas

[Frers 33]

My husband and I are considering getting an aircard to use for internet service wherever cell phone service is available while traveling down the ICW. Does anyone know if such a card or service is also available in the Bahamas or the Caribbean?
Also, has anyone purchased a cell phone in the Bahamas or Caribbean?Thanks.

[onestepcsy37]

air cards don't work anywhere in the bahamas. there is wifi available in various places, some free.

we attempted to use cell phones but were unable to, mostly because nobody seemed to know how to do it. although our stateside carriers assured us the phones would work in the bahamas neither of them did - att and sprint. we were told that if we had a gsm phone we could buy service but we just gave up and bought batelco cards and used the batelco phones. calls to the usa were 50 cents a minute.

[nautical62]

My at&t service worked anywhere there were was a Batelco signal, but the roaming fees for me are very cost prohibitive to use regularly.

On my last cruise there, I just purchased a bahamas phone. Using pre-paid minutes seems to be the norm there. Local calls were much cheaper. Calling back to the states about half as expensive as roaming for me.

Many cruiser's get wi-fi extenders which often means the difference between picking up a signal at anchor and having to go ashore.

I found my Iphone useful for getting email or weather updates in places where I had not been able to get wi-fi for a few days, but could get a phone signal. An aircard would do the same. Having someone text information was the cheapest way to get data from the states when I couldn't get wifi.

[ActiveCaptain]

WiFi will be your friend. Work on getting a better long-range solution.

This article describes a variety of issues and ways around them with mobile phones in the Bahamas:
http://www.activecaptain.com/article...es/bahamas.php

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by Frers 33

My husband and I are considering getting an aircard to use for internet service wherever cell phone service is available while traveling down the ICW. Does anyone know if such a card or service is also available in the Bahamas or the Caribbean?
Also, has anyone purchased a cell phone in the Bahamas or Caribbean?Thanks.

The Bahamas covers a lot of area and internet service varies widely. Good availability in Abaco. Starbucks in Nassau. A few pay services in the Exumas, Staniel Cay, Georgetown. Long Island has a bar/restaurant in Thompson Bay (Long Island Breeze). Nothing in the Jumentos or Ragged Islands. As you can see it's spotty, and every year it's different. Your best bet is a good wifi antenna.

As for phones, Batelco is the only game in town and not a very good one either. Your best bet is an unlocked gsm phone and buy a sim card locally. Batelco does not seem to be servicing their pay phones anymore and many of them are out of order. Batelco still sells calling cards but it's difficult to find a phone to use one. The price of these cards has come down in recent years from $1 a minute to about $.40 a minute to call US/Canada.

As for the ICW a good antenna will usually get a connection.