TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Best Q Anchorages for Internet Access

We're tentatively heading to the BVI mid-March for two weeks to spend time on our new cat. She's in the TMM fleet and has Wifi. We have Verizon global activated and hotspot capability as well. We need to work M-F, mostly email and ZOOM calls. (ugh!). Which Q anchorages will provide the best potential for connectivity? I understand there is zippo at Norman. How about Peter Island? Thanks!

Between the two I think you will have internet almost everywhere. The bight on Norman the last time I was there had a good signal from the USVI. Keep in mind that the boat internet is also cellular based but the boat might have a better antenna. Great harbor on Peter should be just fine and a friend is in White Bay today and able to email and text. He said internet was slow.
G

We were down for about a month in January and used Wifi on the boat almost every day for work. The two places I had trouble with the connection were Great Harbor on Peter Island and Trellis Bay.

I have AT&T and got a good signal on Norman and almost all of Jost, except Diamond Point. When I had good cell service, the hotspot worked better than the boat's wifi.

Amy

We were there in January and the only place we had trouble with connectivity was Great Harbor, Peter Island and we lost connectivity on our way to Anegada from North Sound (to be expected). We did notice that if you were tucked up into Peter Island it was spotty but if you were closer to the mouth of the bay it was better. We were told by Renport that Peter Island is notoriously bad for cell service. We had great service in Benures Bay, Norman Island so we stayed there 2 nights of our quarantine. We also had good service at The Bight and we were on the closest mooring ball in, right off of Pirate's Bight.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Being in TMM fleet, I have had same needs for internet. Most of areas good. For the "must" connectivity meetings, Tortola anchorages.

Usual spot for business access Leverick Bay or Scrub Island so that Shore WiFi available if needed, but that is without Quarantine. Perhaps getting close enough to shore facility on close up ball would work.

Investigate WiFi Extenders?

Performance of an extender will only be as good as the underlying Internet connection. If you on a boat that doesn't have its own WiFi with an external antenna you might try a hotspot with an external antenna that can be placed outside the main cabin. We had some luck in 2018 doing this but reception was pretty spotty back then post-Irma.

Thanks Wes and Louis. Thinking about a Skyroam to give a little assist - they apparently work in the BVI (unlike a Verizon mobile hotspot). I put a request in to beta test Starlink but not holding my breath even though I have contacts there.

Sky roam is just another cellular based system. If the boat cellular is not working as well as your phones it’s doubtful a third option will help.

Thanks George - understand. I wouldn't be as concerned if we didn't have Verizon. Skyroam has been reported to work well in BVI so thinking it may be a good back-up to have.

Greetings

We were just down.

The Wifi and cell service on Norman and Anagada was a no go. Verizon service and was not able to hot spot at all.

We had no other issues on other islands.

Thanks Will - did the boat have wifi? I have given up hope that my intl verizon will work, but hope that the boat's wifi is passable. We had hoped to overnight a few nights in Benure's on Norman but need that wifi to work. I think Caribbeangirl had success there.

When the wifi on our Moorings boat was not working we had them give us a Renport 5g router for free. This was definitely faster and worked almost everywhere except Anegada. One downside is that it is powered by two AC adapters, so required an inverter and power strip.

When we were on AT&T, data at Norman island was always very good. T-mobile, not so much.

Yes - we had internet through ALGLink. It didn't work on Anegada and Norman. Neither did Verizon - really. I mean calls would work but internet was basically no go.