TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Suggestions on Phone Service

Hi everyone,
We are flying to SXM on November 22nd and we are so excited we can hardly stand it. Thanks to everyone for your wonderful trip reports and pictures - we will respond in kind when we get to the island.

Question for you very savvy SXM travelers:
We're from Canada and our country has some of the most expensive cellular service in the world. It's absolutely outrageous and there is nothing we can do about it with a Federal Government seeming to side with the cellular bandits. In the past few years we have "bit the bullet" and paid their 10 dollar a day fee on top of the hundreds of dollars we already give them every month for the right to use our phones on the island. I'm wondering if you have any suggestions for us about getting a SIM card and buying service time that we can forward our phones to or anything else you might be doing to remain connected to your home country? We have elderly relatives and few work issues that we'll have to keep an eye on while we're away and need phone service for peace of mind.

Does anyone else have these issues and if so, what have you done? Years ago we used to rent a phone from Sharon but like I said, it's been years.

Can you help us out with some suggestions?
Thanks in advance
Teresasxm

Teresa, who is your cell provider in Canada?

If I were going to put in a different Sim card, I would either use either an older cell phone you no longer use, or get a burner phone to put the Sim card in. I know some of the Chinese grocery stores will put a SIM in for you. Then you can make that your vacation phone. I think you can buy how much time you want on that phone. Now it may only work on the dutch side of island, not sure on that. Just make sure you write down all important phone numbers since you would have a different phone. You can go to places and use free wifi, for email messages. I tend not to use my phone so much, but do use an Ipad, but pretty easy to find free wifi to check on email messages. Only a week out for you, have a great time, Teresa.

The vacation phone and sim concept works and is appropriate if you will be using your phone away from your (or any) wifi. If using for calls home or the USA like we do then just use wifi calling on your phone at no cost.

We are in the same boat. $15 a day for roaming out of country… we tend to leave the phones at home when going to the beach and check on messages and missed calls when we have a wifi. If you need access to the phone 24/7, then you bite a bullet or get a local SIM card. Last few years our daughter decided that she is an independently wealthy and can afford $15 a day charge so we just used her cell phone as a Hot Spot to get the wifi data….
It’s not like we can’t afford this $15 per day charge- we are spending way more than that for a breakfast every day while on the island- but rather an act of rebellion towards our beloved cell phone providers….

If you are with Roger's, the roam like home service is now $15 a day. I have a SXM sim card in another phone which I use to make local calls, but that phone is very expensive to make calls to Canada. I use it to make local calls and use my Canadian phone for long distance calls to Canada.I mainly use WIFI for my phone service here and keep the phone in flight mode to limit data use.You can purchase a sim card and put it in your Canadian phone to use when you are here and there is a weekly plan which you can purchase for a reasonable amount.If you go to the cellular store located within the Carrefour Market on Bush Road, they will set you up.

Greetings all,

I am following this thread as I too expect our options to be more affordable.

option 1:Some phones work with esims, but not all. I believe esims are very affordable and easy to load from home. You receive a link, et voila!

option 2: some carriers offer an international monthly plan. Mine is $80/mth for 1gb, 100mins, 200 txt, I believe. I use Whatsap on wifi alot too. Skype to land land offers low rates. VOIP.

option 3: order your physical sim card online (not practical for any of us, esp not last minute for the OP)


Please take above with a grain of salt.. a starting point.

What is the trend for us island hoppers?

Safe travels to all. Stay healthy.

Here is what I did once Sharon's phones were no longer an option. I bought a no-frills, cheap, unlocked Motorola phone at Best Buy and obtained a Chippie SIM for it. I now have an SXM phone number that i have kept active ever since. Once we are on the island I can use a credit card or even cash to add to my pre-paid Chippie account at the Bush Road Carrefour, where there is a phone shop. I can also add funds to the account online prior to arrival at the Chippie site. The rate for calling back to the US or Canada is reasonable, but we use that phone almost exclusively for restaurant reservations and confirming dinner plans with the many friends we have made who visit the island the same weeks we are there in February. Reception is pretty good on the French side as well as on the Dutch side.

I have done pretty much the same thing as Cacapasa, except I use my regular phone. Once the plane leaves the US, I switch SIM cards in my US phone. This gives me the advantage of retaining all my US contacts in the phone I use on island. I used to go to Tech Hub to get it set up, but now that I'm more familiar with the setup, I just go to The Mailbox, which is closer to where I stay, to pay for data. I used to pay $35 for thirty days. This time it was $18 for thirty days. I will add another week when my thirty days are up. I really like having wifi at all times without having to enter passwords of various venues I visit.

Thank you so much everyone. This information is so valuable!

We really appreciate it.

Teresa

We are coming from the US and have Verizon so no help to Canadians, we will use wifi when available and wifi calling if need be but since (until this trip) we tend to have to work while on island I just get the one month international plan from Verizon for $100 per phone which gives us more data than the $10 per day plan and since we are there for three weeks it is less expensive. They set it up where it automatically ends after the 30 days. It works on both sides of the island and Anguilla.

I just bill it to the company, it helps that my wife sleeps with the owner of the company.

Leaving today to start the journey first to Anguilla, SXM on Sunday!

We do the same as jazzgal . Use our regular phones and swap out the sim card. Never been an issue.

We never take anything to the island--jewelry, clothes, or anything else that we would be upset to lose or to have stolen. That's why I bought an inexpensive phone to use there. We even bought some cheap Timex watches years ago to wear while we're there.

In the past I've had an island sim card in an old phone, but this year I'm just going to use my regular phone if I need it. Again, it's not as costly for us. There's a tech store inside the Carrefour in Philipsburg, and they can set you up with a Chippie sim.

I know virtually nothing about cell phones, having finally relented and bought them earlier this year. We're with Spectrum--$30/month for each line. International is 7 cents for calls and 2 cents for text--to or from SXM. No charge other than the minute charges. Sounds easier and cheaper than what you folks go through. If you're thinking of changing carriers, Spectrum might be an option--they operate over the Verizon network.

We have Spectrum cell service as well and have used it on the island and to call to the island. There are some taxes added to the rates but it is still only around 9 cents per minute and works well. In March I used it a few times to call home and to also make local SXM calls but if you have access to wi-fi, you can use that and avoid any charges. One just has to remember to change to and from airplane mode. You also have to make sure you have international calling activated on your Spectrum phone/account.

I also have a SXM cell and still use it some as I have time/credit on it and also my Chippie card. It was bought prior to the Spectrum cell service.

I have no idea if Spectrum is available in Canada as the poster that started the post is from Canada.

WhatsApp is a good alternative also.

Same here with Spectrum. Cost was negligible.

I do what Jazzgal does.

When I began I bought a phone on Amazon that was a dual SIM. I've now put the island SIM into an old smartphone.

Top up with Chippie, renew online for free to keep the island number active, and add funds at the Texaco at the end of the causeway, or at the Maho Market. Eazy Peezy.

I activate a 7 day data plan when I arrive, and renew as necessary. This comes from the balance I've put in Chippie. I like having internet in the car, etc., and not always relying on public wifi.

We use whatsapp its free and works great. The person you are calling has to be on whatsapp also. Free download on your cell phone. Everyone in SXM uses whatsapp, resturants
hotels and locals. Just have family members you plan on calling down load the free app.

Yes, use Whatsapp. I agree with Christine and Peter.
Cheers

WhatsApp is the way to go. Anybody in your regular contact list that also uses it will show up in the WhatsApp contacts. Easy texting, Voice mail, Video Calls and regular calls all free. Just need WiFi or Data.

If you can use apps/data to communicate back home that would be ideal. I am a big fan of WhatsApp (mentioned above). Just load it onto your phone before you travel. Once you put in the new SIM card, WhatsApp will as you if you want to stay with the old phone number (always Yes) and that way all your WhatsApp contacts will still be able to reach you.

Speaking from experience, even receiving one phone call with Rogers will trigger the $15 Roam Like Home Charge - you may have to disable that before you leave.

Edit - just notice your dates. Oops. Hope you had fun