Bahamas cell phone roaming, or not :(

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by zboss

Phone companies typically send them out once or twice a year. It'll pop up on your phone and say "you have received a file update from such and such - do you want to install?".

They do that manually when you take your phone into batelco. They add their tower specifics to the existing file.

Never had this in the Bahamas. I take my unlocked phone in and buy a sim card and put it in. Works. have done it with three different phones, One I-phone and two Samsungs.

[hellosailor]

Some Verizon phones (mainly older or less expensive ones) will be CDMA2000 only, no GSM or LTE service. Others will require an optional SIM card to use those services. It might pay to contact BTC at BTC Bahamas and enquire what they support, after checking with Verizon for what your phone supports. And if roaming is still $2.99 a minute, it may pay to buy a cheap GSM phone and a native SIM card anyway, fwiw. Different phones also may require manually selecting a network, i.e. going into a setup menu on the phone and switching from 'Verizon" to "BTC" once you are there. And entering technical information with that. As mentioned, something a BTC office could do for you. Or could give you instructions to do. Even here in the States, just replacing an AT&T SIM with one from T-Mob is often NOT good enough to make the phone work on the other carrier, without manual intervention.

[TickMan]

T-mobile Simple Choice plan, included Bahamas free texting and internet :
Simple Choice International Plans | T-Mobile Coverage in 115 countries and destinations

[hpeer]

I just ran into a guy who is planning on using a Google Phone in th Bahamas. He had not done it yet but said he had researched it, i was a bit skeptical. So I researched a bit.

I found the information a bit confusing. At first blush it sounds pretty good but, being skeptical, there may be some gotchas. It sounds like it uses a combination of cell and wifi. I can't tell if the rates quoted are JUST the wifi rates and that cell rates are additional?

Frankly it sounds too good to be true. I'm going to keep investigating. We need to use about 50 hours of voice/month from Bahamas to USA.

Does anyone here have any practical experience?

[TickMan]

Originally Posted by hpeer

I just ran into a guy who is planning on using a Google Phone in th Bahamas. He had not done it yet but said he had researched it, i was a bit skeptical. So I researched a bit.
Does anyone here have any practical experience?

I use IPhone and don't really understand your question, Google phone just device, like IPhone, main question what operator. T-mobile ?

[hpeer]

Well that sort of is my question. He thought he could make USA-Bahamas-USA calls for 0.20¢/minute using a Google phone.

Is that true? How?

[TickMan]

Originally Posted by hpeer

Well that sort of is my question. He thought he could make USA-Bahamas-USA calls for 0.20¢/minute using a Google phone.

Is that true? How?

I have no idea about Google phone, but with T-mobile SIM card, you can use it and even get free text and internet

[sailorcherry]

I can't speak for Bahamas, sorry, but tmobile did work well for free (included in my regular plan) phone and text in MX.

[TickMan]

Originally Posted by sailorcherry

I can't speak for Bahamas, sorry, but tmobile did work well for free (included in my regular plan) phone and text in MX.

I just spend 10 days in Abaco. T-mobile work better then open Wi-FI in Marina.
But last August had problem in Nassau, for some reason doesn't work at all, but since I was there only one day, I din't try to solve a problem.
PS Reset network setting may help sometime to fit it.

[sailorcherry]

Originally Posted by TickMan

I just spend 10 days in Abaco. T-mobile work better then open Wi-FI in Marina.
But last August had problem in Nassau, for some reason doesn't work at all, but since I was there only one day, I din't try to solve a problem.
PS Reset network setting may help sometime to fit it.

Yes, it didn't work until the network was reset via customer care. Hope to try my tmobile in the Bahamas one of these days

[TickMan]

Originally Posted by sailorcherry

Yes, it didn't work until the network was reset via customer care. Hope to try my tmobile in the Bahamas one of these days

You don't need to use customer care, Iphone has this option inside, General Settings, Reset

[sailorcherry]

Originally Posted by TickMan

You don't need to use customer care, Iphone has this option inside, General Settings, Reset

Fancy! Also, once I got the tmobile booster it has helped a good deal in rural areas. Went from barely being able to google search to streaming netflix.

[TickMan]

Originally Posted by sailorcherry

Fancy! Also, once I got the tmobile booster it has helped a good deal in rural areas. Went from barely being able to google search to streaming netflix.

What type of booster do you use ? I have this one, works great.

[hpeer]

I would be interested in hearing any quantitative measure of how effective the repeater was. We you able to talk 3/4/5/6 miles from a tower?

I have a Weboost BDA.

Currently Bobbing endlessly around in North Lake Worth waiting for this bloody East wind to go South (Wednesday next?) before heading to the Abacos.

[sailorcherry]

Originally Posted by TickMan

What type of booster do you use ? I have this one, works great.

$441! Ouch! It's just the one t-mobile offers.