cell & wifi coverage in Exumas & Eleuthera?

[Beach Cruiser]

For information about data cell service in the Bahamas take a look at BTC 4G Any unlocked device that supports 850Mhz GSM or HSPA+ will work. I use an unlocked ATT iPhone and iPad. $30.00 will get you 1GB for 1 month. There are no cell towers in the Exuma Land & Sea Park.

[americad]

anyone know of a good wifi antenna to boost the signal from a distance?

[kona74]

Hi,
We are in Eleuthera now. We use an Island Time Wifi booster and I am usually able to find some internet available to use.

We spent a couple of days at Current Cut with great borrowed wifi, a night at the Cove with wifi seen but locked, and are now in Hatchet Bay "borrowing" some internet to send this post.

You may get lucky and you may not. There are plenty of services in the Abacos that will sell you WiFi time. I don't know about the Exumas, haven't got there yet.

[kona74]

Regarding cell coverage, we brought an unlocked GSM cell phone (3G iPhone) and bought a BTC sim card for it with pre-paid minutes. The sim card and $55 of air time was $70.

The BTC coverage in the islands is great.

[gettinthere]

Originally Posted by kona74

Regarding cell coverage, we brought an unlocked GSM cell phone (3G iPhone) and bought a BTC sim card for it with pre-paid minutes. The sim card and $55 of air time was $70.

The BTC coverage in the islands is great.

$55 of air time? How much air time? That's voice right?

Did you buy data? What was the cost of data?

Thnx

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by americad

anyone know of a good wifi antenna to boost the signal from a distance?

Marine WiFi Systems

[Beach Cruiser]

Originally Posted by gettinthere

$55 of air time? How much air time? That's voice right?

Did you buy data? What was the cost of data?

Thnx

Prepaid plans are $30 for 1gb per month.

[AnchorageGuy]

Compliments of Explorer Charts website, Bahamas Chatter...

Cellular Phone /Sim card/Data update

Published November 22, 2012 | By Lost Marbles
BTC is now updating their information for all accounts on file (or not on file) with existing cellular phone users, and requiring existing users to sign a new terms and conditions agreement. If you, like we used to do, just purchased a SIM card from whoever had them for sale, they will no longer work until you visit the BTC office and register the account. In order to purchase a new SIM card for BTC you must now show photo identification. So on entering the Bahamas your phone might not work until you visit their office with the ID and if you have been putting money on your account to keep your number active you will still have to go into a BTC office before your phone will work after December 1, 2012. This applies to data sim cards also. Here are links to the new terms and conditions and the application for prepaid service pages. If your phone doesn’t work when you arrive, don’t panic, it is probably due to this new policy.
http://www2.btcbahamas.com/Policies_...Conditions.pdf
http://www2.btcbahamas.com/Policies_...esOffering.pdf

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Beach Cruiser

Prepaid plans are $30 for 1gb per month.

Geeez...1gb for $30 seems high. I have Tmobile here and pay $50 a month for 5gb and use every bit of it.

[kona74]

Originally Posted by gettinthere

$55 of air time? How much air time? That's voice right?

Did you buy data? What was the cost of data?

Thnx

I did not get a data package. My phone was primarily for emergency purposes so it is voice and text. BTC has spent a lot of money to upgrade their towers and are moving rapidly to 4G cellular.

Here is a link to pre-paid prices - BTC Bahamas.

Peak 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. $0.33/minute Off peak 7:00pm to 7:00 a.m. $0.15/minute Weekend Saturday and Sunday $0.20/minute

SMS Allows you to send and receive text massages via your mobile device. $0.05 per message Incomimg Free iText iText is international text messaging. iText allows you to send and receive messages from mobile customers outside of the Bahamas. $0.15 per message Incoming Free MMS MMS is a Multimedia Message that can be sent to and from MMS capable phones. It can contain images and sounds or video. $0.40 per message Incoming Free

[AnchorageGuy]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Geeez...1gb for $30 seems high. I have Tmobile here and pay $50 a month for 5gb and use every bit of it.

If you think that's expensive you probably don't ever want to go to the Bahamas. Everything cost a lot more there than the U.S., as it does in many other countries. So our data plans here are not a fair comparison. Chuck

[Beach Cruiser]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Geeez...1gb for $30 seems high. I have Tmobile here and pay $50 a month for 5gb and use every bit of it.

Everything in the Bahamas is more expensive. We use the data for email and weather updates and Skype. No streaming or anything that requires high data usage. There are way too many other things to do here.

BTC does offer a postpaid plan that gets you 5gb for $40 a month, but I believe there is a 6 month minimum.

[Teknav]

...and I thought "talk is cheap"...

[Mark_S.]

We are headed to the Bahamas again early next year. Any recommendations on best device to get in USA from ebay for a Bahamas sim card for internet use? I met some people last year that were using a mifi card I think. I have an unused 3G ATT iphone, but I think it must be unlocked to work in Bahamas. Any suggestions appreciated.

Mark

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by Mark_S.

We are headed to the Bahamas again early next year. Any recommendations on best device to get in USA from ebay for a Bahamas sim card for internet use? I met some people last year that were using a mifi card I think. I have an unused 3G ATT iphone, but I think it must be unlocked to work in Bahamas. Any suggestions appreciated.

Mark

Just get the phone unlocked. Don't know where you are but every other hole in the wall computer place can usually do it. Or you can get the code on the internet. I have an unlocked iphone that was given to me.
iPhone Unlock and iPhone Jailbreak