TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands 4g system

My boat has a 4g system when there is no wifi. Any advice for best service in BVIs for the 7 months I'm down there. Thks

I think no one is answering because no one knows what you are talking about. Do you have a router on your boat?

Are you trying to tell us you have a multiband amplified antenna? If that is the case you may get AT&T from the USVI at times or you will need to get a local GSM SIM Card for any open/unlocked device you want to use while traveling in the BVI.

The BVI has just this week awarded the the 4G LTE spectrum to the three carriers. As usual they have not yet said who got 700MHZ and who got the other frequencies. 700MHZ is the one to look for as it has the longest range and best penetration.

I have no idea how long it will take to implement the upgrade.

Unfortunately, I do not believe the BVI ISP structure is set up to provide the optimum response time that 4G can provide. When the announcement was made last week I tried a traceroute on Digicell and LIME/FLOW/Cable & Worthless and both routed through DNS servers and Nodes in Grenada. That means that any outbound BVI signal goes south out of Brewers Bay to Grenada then back to Brewers Bay and on via PR or Bermuda to NYC. Not the best routing when the cables are carrying daytime commercial traffic.

To give you an idea of internet speeds down here at home I have Cox Cable and get 20-25gb down and 7 to 12gb up. Down here on DSL I am getting 2gb up and 500mb+- up. You can still stream Netflix but allow for some buffering. On my cell 3G it is about the same or a little slower. I am however being routed through the T-Mobile servers. A local SIM might have a better routing structure but i doubt it.

Been on the Rum Glenn? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" /> I think you may mean 2Mb and 0.5Mb. I doubt Netflix would buffer on 2Gb <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

...more likely the humidity is playing havoc with his keyboard

Yes I have a router on the boat. It's a 4g capable but not thinking of streaming just emails and work stuff. Just wonder who would have best data plan for something like this. Thank you, I'm not much of a techie .

4G is not a specific global standard. What wireless service provider network do you connect to today? What is the model of the box you have? Did you get the "router" from Verizon or another proprietary wireless service provider? Have you checked to see if there is a removable SIM card?

I use a Lime connection, not too bad, about $50 a month. I use it through a mifi device.

I think both Digicel and Lime are your two choices and they both advertise 4G speeds. Problem is it's not 4G LTE yet and that's a big step up in speeds. So I'd call what they are selling as 4G really 3G plus - it's all about marketing. You can get 4G LTE from ATT in some areas closer to STT and St. John but not everywhere in the BVI. If all you need is email and such your system should work fine so I'd just compare prices of data plans and availability in certain areas. Really, you'll need to do your own comparisons for best fit because I think both vendors have some spotty coverage in certain areas.

Do you think it is still possible to top up a 2 years old lime sim/data card?

Background: We will start this time from Maya Cove and there is no possibility to buy a new sim card as far as I know.

Likely - as I know it can be done with CCT
But, it may involve physically going to the Roadtown office
as it does with CCT
Perhaps someone has done it over the phone, and can opine

We have a LIME sim card that was deactivated due to inactivity. Their support told me that I had to come in to get it set up again. Getting a new sim was easier since I was not wed to the phone number.

We bought a Digicel router 110V plug in router for our boat. It works well without an external antenna. I've routinely seen 7Mbps down/3Mbps up with that device.

The full-time cruisers we know are moving to T-Mobile for cheapest access. The 2G data seems good enough for the folks who spend hurricane season in Grenada. But, 2G is not fast enough for video conference and that is a hard requirement for me.

I'm also carefully looking at Google Project Fi. It has hard requirements for the handset voice, but can support more devices with data only sims. Contrary to most use or lose programs, you get a credit for unused data.

Cheers, RickG

You could try phoning the number of your old sim card and if someone answers or you get a voicemail box then the answer would definitely be no since it would mean someone else now has that number.

Perhaps simpler to just call LIME and find out in one call.
btw... they have changed names again - to FLOW from LIME

I'd be surprised if anything can be done without a Roadtown visit - but, everything is possible

CCT surprised me once by reinstating unused expired credits, without being asked, even when those credits should have been long gone
Never had many good experiences with C&W/Lime - but, they are the major in the Caribbean, and, they act the part