TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Canadians with Freedom Mobile

A warning to Canadians with Freedom mobile. We switched carriers to Freedom because they advertise roaming in multiple countries including St Martin. We arrived last Thursday and for the first time in 20 years have had no service on the Dutch side. Our phones appear to work in Marigot but we are staying in Simpson Bay. A fire started in our condo while the maid was cleaning and we couldn’t call anyone. Fortunately a neighbour had a working phone and called for help.

Thanks for the Freedom warning. That's devastating. And i hope all is well in your condo and everyone involved.

I have learned by doing our roaming due diligence... we are not covered, despite what the reps/chatbots say. Do not take their word for the dutch side (uhummm gigsky).

St maarten in not st martin. How many chatbot hours I lost to this fight. Next I ask for clarification.. which countries are covered under netherland antilles... their answer everytime? Netherland antillies. And thats how i fell for the gigsky no service trap.

Im going with Rogers Carib roaming plan this time. Anyone want to chime in if dutch side and french side have service?

Blessings

Cc

I was with Rogers for years, but their $15 a day roaming plan forced me out. I always had service on the island though.

Hope you get the phone situation sorted out. But that fire was really scary. Hope everyone is OK.

CrazyCanuxx...we are from Northern Ontario and have Bell but rates are ridiculous out of country. We are presently here for 7 weeks and we bring an old cell phone and go to an Asian grocery store and pay $10 for a Sim card and get started with $10 for local and long distance calls that are very reasonable. They install the Sim card and load the $10 for calls and you can top up anytime and you have immediate access for present account status. You are given a local number. Peli Deli (Simpson Bay) is most helpful. We stayed at Sapphire for 1 week when we arrived and the Jorden Village Asian grocery store set us up. For us, very inexpensive and we use the phone to call taxis, for restaurant reservations and have available for emergency calls.

We use an old phone with local sim card as well. Works for us.

Just signed up for a new plan from Tellus, Canada,US, Mexico and the Caribbean. Talk, text and data. Might be through snowbirds program. We spend about 7 months in Canada and split the rest between Florida and SXM, so hopefully this will work for us, will find out in a couple of weeks. The rate went from $55/month for Canada/US to $65 to add Mexico and Caribbean. That’s in CDN dollars. We have an old phone and did the chippe prepaid plan for years but I would rather not have to have an additional phone number if my Canadian phone works wherever I am.

Canuck54,

This is a similar plan i just signed up for on Rogers...let's see how it works.

I was about to get a physical sim upon arrival...but thought keeping my home # has advantages. Especially if i island hop. Stay tuned for my experience.

Rogers has great service on both sides of the island. I get 5 days free roaming with Rogers and $15 for any extra days. I mainly use Wifi connection and roaming if I need to.

I have Freedom Mobile, and stay on Orient every January. I can confirm that it worked perfectly on the French side last year, and I am hoping so this year!

Previously I was on Bell, and their roaming charges for 5 weeks would have been $320 for the month, and $112 for the last week which is crazy at $432! I am
still working, so I want texts and calls to my number to just work. And it did.