TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Cell phone options on Tortola

I will be on Tortola from Feb.6-Mar.6. Does anybody know.. If I bring my old iphone 5 can Digicel or any other provider put a sim card in it and sell me phone minutes? Or can I buy a pre-loaded throw away phone? Thanks

Doubt you would save any money doing the sim card shuffle - what are you roaming plans like with your existing provider - we bought an island phone then about 6 months later our provider lowered their roaming charges so now it's easier and cheaper to keep using our mainland phone.

If you have Verizon as your carrier you can add International services for $10/day other services available as well.....more info
https://www.verizonwireless.com/solutions-and-services/international-travel/

To add....If the OP has Verizon and is there for a month, there is another plan for longer term. Specific limitations on data and phone usage if I remember correctly.

You can order a sim card in advance from mrsimcard.com

I do have Verizon but at $10.00 a day it will cost me $280.00....that's way more than I want to pay and would rather go without a phone.

https://www.verizonwireless.com/solutions-and-services/international-travel/

look at the monthly plan for $70.

We received good service from T Mobile. Unlimited data and $1 per minute voice. Wifi and facetime helped.

You can buy Flow min for around $10 Sim is $5 put into your phone and you have a local number to use. You can buy more minutes anytime. Works for me. No problems.

Going without a phone guarantees a quiet vacation unless you are worried about people back home.

Thanks, tpcook...this looks like my best option...at least I will try it.

Concur. One of the reasons we like Gorda is that we are disconnected until San Juan at least. If they really need us they can call the office at Guavaberry.

Digicel is the same price as Flow. Be sure your phone is "unlocked" before you go to BVI. I took two phones, an old Samsung Galaxy Note 3 on AT&T and an iPhone 5S on Verizon. Turned out both were "locked" to the carrier. It is easy to get them unlocked in the states, easy in BVI too but you need to call a US number and log onto a webpage to accomplish this.

Digicel has an app that you use to top up minutes, don't know about flow. A learning about Digicel is that you must have some activity on the phone every two months. If you don't travel to BVI every two months then you must do something else. The Digicel tech told me to put $3 credit on the phone every two months which I do via the app. Also, you get a one-minute warning when your minutes are going to run out on a phone call. There is no warning on data. When the phone times out you have a brick. You cannot get into the app until you find a hot spot to top up.

The Digicel folks were super friendly and I really like having a local number. My wife has AT&T and does the $10 a day thing. Works like a charm. Makes her feel secure that our kids can call us without having to look for a number they haven't memorized.